Xciting New Worlds
by SiriuslyPadfoot12
Summary: Melody THOUGHT she was normal, but when Mystique crashes through her window she finds otherwise. Now, with three other new mutants, she joins the Institute. But, just as she starts to fit in, murder strikes and all the clues point to her. Who really was
1. Changes Big and Small

Xciting New Worlds

By Meagan (Padfoot)

Chapter 1 Changes Big and Small 

            "Miss Becker, would you please join the class?"

            "Huh?" I asked, snapping out of my latest fantasy. No longer was I battling the dark wizard Renaldo for the location of the kidnapped Prince David. No longer was I amazing the innocent bystanders with my astounding infinity of knowledge and magical prowess.

            Nope.

            Now I was being unappreciated.

            My fellow classmates giggled and pointed at me. I heard people muttering Melody this and Melody that under their breath. Talk about being mature.

             I blinked and rubbed my eyes.

            "Welcome back, Melody," Mrs. Senator said sarcastically. I scowled up at my Algebra Honors teacher. It was a known fact that I despised math in every form.

            "What was the question?" I asked in a would-be casual voice.

            I held my breath as she opened her mouth to do her worse (she didn't like me at all), but then the bell rang. I leapt to my feet with a cry of, "Saved by the bell!"

            I darted out of the classroom. Freedom!

            I shoved my way to my locker and crouched. Unfortunately, I happen to have a bottom locker. I scrambled to do the combination before the boy who owns the top locker, Gregg, came and made it impossible for me to get at my books.

            "Move," grunted Gregg. The stupid one had arrived.

            I twiddled the padlock quickly and opened the locker, only to be nudged—or rather, kicked—out of the way. I grunted as I landed hard on my side. I dejectedly blew a stray hair out of my eyes.

            It took Gregg about twenty minutes to open his locker, take out the right books, and put them in his backpack. This was one of his fast days.

            When he was finished, he slammed the locker shut. He turned and, as he walked back, purposely tangled his foot in my skirt and yanked it up to show the remaining students my underwear.

            I yowled and jerked my skirt back down. You see, I go to a private school and therefore must wear a uniform: a skirt and blouse.

            "Nice tighty-whities, Becker," Gregg chortled, and ambled off down the corridor.

            Eyes stinging with tears of humiliation, I got my books for homework and stuffed them into my bag. I snuffled and a solitary tear dripped down my cheek. I scowled with self-anger for letting a thing like that get to me.

            I left the school and walked home quickly, heels clicking against the pavement. If I walked quickly enough, I could probably avoid the bullies that hung around the place after school…

            "What's your hurry?"

            Guess not.

            I ignored the voice and quickened my pace. Not _today_, not _Friday_, not the day of the dance!

            The first swing by Bully Number 1 caught me in the shoulder and I went down. I lay sprawled on the sidewalk for a moment, dazed. Stars exploded in my eyes.

            A foot swung out and kicked me in the side. I rolled off the sidewalk with a grunt and down into a ditch by the side of the road. My backpack fell off in the process and tore, all my books and papers spilling out into the grass.

            I lie on my belly for a few moments. When I went to get up, a foot pressed against my back and shoved me down into the grass. I frantically searched the area around me for something, anything, that would aid me.

            I grabbed a shard of glass and gouged my captor's leg.

            He howled in pain and I rolled, but Bully Number 2 jumped on me. A solid blow landed on my eye, snapping my glasses. The left lens cracked. I yelled. I balled my hands into fists and swung, getting Bully Number 2 my across the face but the blow was weak.

            Another hit went onto my nose. Blood spurted out and rolled down my cheeks into my hair and mouth. I coughed and spluttered.

            "Leave her alone!"

            Now this voice I didn't recognize. It blinked a few times and looked up. A boy stood on top of the hill. He looked pretty muscular. His brown hair looked a little windblown. He was wearing ruby red sunglasses. He had his hands on his hips and, although he was wearing sunglasses, you could tell he was glaring at the person on top of me.

            "And why should I?" my captor demanded.

            "Because I said so!" Sunglasses said.

            "Look what she did to Danny," Bully Number 3 griped, pointing to Bully Number 1.

            Bully Number 1 was whimpering. He was a wimp enough not to have pulled the glass out of the wound. Blood seeped out of the gash and down his leg.

            "Look what you did to me!" I said, glaring. This only earned me a punch across the mouth.

            Sunglasses dove at Bully Number 2. They hit and both went rolling. I quickly got to my feet and shouldered Bully Number 3, who had started to run so he could help his partner-in-crime. I was short, but that came in awful handy when you wanted to trip someone.

            Bully Number 3 went down. With all my might, I kicked him in the side of the head. Specks of blood flew from my nose. He flopped down on the ground, unconscious.

            I ran over to where Sunglasses and Bully Number 2 were fighting. I drew back my fist and landed a powerful punch to his jaw.

            He rolled off Sunglasses with a yell. He got to his feet, stared at his fallen accomplices, and ran.

            I wiped blood from my nose with the back of my hand and sniffed. I helped Sunglasses to his feet. "Thanks for saving my butt," I said.

            "No problem," he replied. He paused, and then added, "If you took down those two like that, why didn't you just do that to begin with?"

            I shrugged. "There were too many of them for me to handle. And besides, they hit me in the back. The next thing I knew, I was pinned on the ground and they were pounding on my face."

            "My name's Scott Summers," Sunglasses said, holding out his hand.

            I took it. "Melody Becker. Nice to meet you, Scott."

            "Same here."

            I bent and picked up the twisted remains of my glasses, screwing up my face. This was the second pair in three weeks! Mom was going to kill me!

            "Listen, do you need a ride?" asked Scott, running a hand through his hair.         

            I thought about it. It didn't seem like too bad an idea because, after all, he had just saved my butt. So I grinned and nodded. "Sure."

            We clambered up the hill. I froze when I saw his car. It was… _beautiful_. The shiny red convertible glittered in the sunlight. "_Whoa_," I breathed.

            "Like it?" Scott asked with a grin.

            I nodded fervently. I tore the door open and leapt inside. The interior of the car was leather. I grinned and ran my hand over the armrest.

            As Scott started driving, he told me, "There's Kleenex in the dashboard compartment if you want it."

            I nodded my thanks and wiped blood from my upper lip, stuffing the rags into my sweater pocket.

            "Where do you live?" he asked as we pulled up to the end of the street. I told him. He twiddled the steering wheel and took a sharp right.

            "Where do you go to school? I haven't seen you around before," I asked.

            "Bayville High. You?"

            I wrinkled my nose. "Albright's School for Gifted Children."

            "_Oooh_," he hissed in sympathy.

            "Yeah. Exactly. Like I want to go there. And as far as I see, I'm the only gifted person in the entire school."

            "High opinion of yourself?"

            "A _true_ high opinion of myself."

            He grinned.

            I pointed out my house and he pulled up. I glanced at the driveway. My parents weren't home. Good.

            "Thanks!" I said, getting out.

            "Listen," Scott said, "If you need a ride home after school, I can drive you. And if you ever need to give me a call, I live at the Xavier Institute. Call before you come, though."

            I closed my eyes. "Yes, thank you! Just what I needed! I'm usually able to avoid the Stupids but I was slow today. A ride would be great."

            He waved and drove off.

            I ran to the front door, fumbled with my key, and tore the door open. I ran inside and was about to run past the mirror, but caught a look at myself and froze.

            I guess you can say I'm pretty plain looking. I've got straight brown hair that's a few inches longer than my shoulders. Right now, it was matted down with blood. I ran a hand down my slightly pointed, slightly elfish face. I was extremely pale. My blue-green eyes were wide in my face and half obscured by my bangs. I gingerly touched my normal-sized nose.

            I glanced at the clock. It was three. I had just enough time to take a shower before my parents came home.

            I took a quick shower and was padding downstairs in my bathrobe and slippers when my mother came home. My mother looked at me, glanced at the clock, and then stared at me.

            "What?" I demanded.

            "What happened to your eye?" she demanded.

            I looked to my right and crouched a little so that I could see myself in the shiny surface of the toaster. My left eye was swollen and purple. I touched it and winced.

            "I got jumped by a few bullies," I said, flaring my nostrils and immediately wishing that I didn't because it hurt.

            "Why don't you fight back?" Mom cried despairingly.

            "I did! There were too many of them! I would have come off worse for wear, but this kid called Scott pulled up and saved me. He even gave me a ride home."

            Mom stared at me, face turning red. "You accepted a ride from a stranger?"

            Oops.

            "Well, yeah. He _had_ just saved me. Besides, he's nice. He lives at the Xavier Institute. Don't really gifted people go there?"

            "You're grounded."

            I froze. "_What_?"

            "I've always told you not to ride with strangers and you deliberately disobeyed me. You're grounded, for a month. You're to stay in your room for the rest of the evening."

            My face steadily colored. Anger bubbled up in my chest. I balled my hands into fists and trembled with anger. My lips stretched into thin, bloodless lines. I turned abruptly on heel and stomped upstairs.

            In my room, I threw on the clothes that were my usual attire: baggy khakis and a tight red tee shirt. I dried my hair and stared at my reflection. I sighed at my height, which is below average. I look like a sixth grader, not a freshman. I curled my lip as I saw my black eye. What a sunrise.

            In no way had my anger dissipated. 

            Suddenly and violently, I had a pounding headache. The world spun wildly and I lurched forward. I caught the dresser and steadied myself, gasping. My nose started to bleed again. I choked on the air, as if abruptly unable to breath air.  My stomach churned.

            As abruptly as it started, it stopped.

            I heard the doorbell ring. I glanced outside the window and paled. Scott's convertible was parked on the sidewalk in front of our house.

            "Hello?"

            My mother's voice drifted up the stairs.

            I tore the door open and flew down the stairs. Scott stood in the doorway, with my mother confronting him. He was holding my visibly destroyed backpack.

            He grinned when he saw me. "Melody! You forgot your backpack!"

            I stared at him, as if I had never seen anything quite like him before. He was still wearing his sunglasses, although it was dark out. I smiled fleetingly.

            "Who's this?" Mom demanded.

            "Um, this is Scott. He's the one who gave me a ride home today."

            She glared at Scott, who looked a little taken aback. "What did you think you were doing, driving home a young girl you didn't know?"

            He took a step back, shocked at the confrontation. "I—I don't know. There were these three guys beating her up, so I got them off her. I guess I didn't want them to chase after her and get her again."

            I felt a trickle of blood crawling down my upper lip. I wiped it away and pinched my nose. "See?" I asked in a nasal voice, "I wouldn't have accepted the ride home if I hadn't known he was nice."

            "That's not the point! It's that—" She broke off.

            Because then the window exploded.

            I dropped to the ground as if I had suddenly lost use of my legs. I yelled with pain and alarm. I threw my arms up to cover my face as shards of glass flew at me. They pelted my skin, cutting deep with razor sharp edges.

             I looked up only when I heard the crunch of glass being stepped on. My eyes came to rest on a pair of shiny, black leather boots that I had never seen before. I looked up to see a pair of green scaly legs, a skimpy black skirt and top, followed by a snake-like face with yellow eyes. Her vivid red hair contrasted horribly with her skin. She grinned maliciously down at me, exposing larger-than-normal eyeteeth… or rather, fangs.

            "You exploded the window," I squeaked.

            She laughed, a low and sinister sound that sent a shiver down my spine.

            "Mystique," Scott growled. His hand had flown to his sunglasses the moment the window exploded. They seemed to glow with a pulsing red light.

            "Aaah, if it isn't Xavier's pet, _Cyclops_," the sake-woman, presumably Mystique, laughed.

            Now I could see that there was a definitely glow behind the mirror-like sunglasses. "I'm _warning _you, Mystique! Leave her _alone_!"

            "I've come to claim her, X-Child. She is _mine_," she bent down and dragged me to my feet, running a hand down my cheek.

            I jerked out of her grip. "Don't touch me, you freak!"

            She eyed me up with her demonic yellow eyes. She grabbed me by both shoulders and stared into my eyes. "You will come with me, whether you want to or not," she hissed.

            But something had come to distract me.

            I seemed to plunge into the yellow depths of her eyes. My arms unconsciously rose to touch her face, holding her head still. I felt—_felt_—my pupils shrink. The hands on my shoulders fell away. I felt power surge into my body through my hands, coming directly from Mystique herself.

            A red flash of light suddenly blinded me. I shrieked in shock and fell back, clutching my face. My skin rippled under my fingers, changing shape and texture.

            That's when my mother started screaming.

            Mystique slammed into the wall and slid down it, twitching. She moaned and blinked. Then she looked up at me with such terror in her eyes that I shall never forget it.

            I had never seen someone look as horrified as she. What traumatized me, however, was that that look was directed at _me_.

            I closed my eyes and buried my face in my hands. Something pricked my fingers. I winced and looked down. A thin trickle of blood ran down my finger—_which was now a deep shade of green_.

            I got to my feet and stumbled over to the mirror. All eyes were on me. I glanced in the mirror and _screamed_.

            My face was scaly and green. My hair was now auburn, not brown. My irises were yellow. My eyeteeth had grown to double their normal size.

            Another red light flashed. I looked over at Scott and jumped. His sunglasses were on the lower part of his nose. The lasers were coming from his _eyes_.

            Mystique yelled. She threw up her arms to protect her face. The scent of burnt flesh filled my nostrils. Scott's deadly gaze instantly charred her exposed skin.

            She closed her eyes and relaxed her face, looking as if she expected something to happen. Nothing did. She looked suddenly _very_ panicked. She got to her feet, sent an alarmed glance at me, and jumped out the window she had come in.

            I sank to the floor. I closed my eyes and wished—for the first time in my life—that I were me.

            My skin rippled again. My vision slid out of focus. Confused, I touched my cheek. It was soft like human skin again.

            I dragged myself up to look in the mirror again. I smiled, still a little dazed and confused. I was myself again.

            "What's happening to me?" I whispered. I sat on the floor again and drew my knees up to my chest, trembling. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I was scared, an emotion that I hadn't experienced for years.

            Mom remained where she was. It was Scott who walked over and knelt beside me, gently squeezing my arm. His sunglasses glinted. "Don't worry," he said, "It happens to all of us."

            "'All of us'?" I repeat.

            He smiled thinly. "All of us mutants. It shows when we have particularly strong and violent emotion. You aren't the only mutant. There are lost of us. We're all mutants back at the Institute. Back there, we learn how to use our powers to protect others. You can come now, I guess. It's your choice if you want to come, though. I won't make you."

            This new and sudden information started to sink in. Mutants? How could this possibly be?

            "It's not true," I said stiffly.

            "Then tell me, what just happened?"

            I fell silent and looked blankly off to the side.

            "Mom," I said softly, "Mom, what am I going to do?"

            Mom looked down at me as if I were something she'd found in the sewer. "I have no daughter," she said, "Because whatever you are, you aren't human. And you are not living in this house."

            My insides froze. My stomach dropped out existence. "W-what?" I spluttered.

            "Leave. Now."

            Numbly, I got to my feet. Scott helped me up. I stiffly walked upstairs, stuffed everything into a trunk, and brought it downstairs. As it clunked loudly against the stairs, realization sank in.

            My mother was disowning me.

            My eyes filled with tears. I fiercely wiped them away.

            Scott took my trunk to the car. I stood in front of my mother, staring at her with watery eyes. "You'll regret this," I hissed, "I was your only daughter. I'm glad I'm not now."

            And with that, I turned on heel and went to the car with Scott and got in.

            I was going to my new home.

A/N: Eeep! No flames! ::cringes:: This is my first fan fic about a TV show ever. I've been watching the show for about two months now and I'm lovin' it. (KURT RULES!!) If I've made any stupidly obvious mistakes, please inform me of this. Please, be nice!!

**~*~Padfoot~*~**


	2. Lessons on Life

Chapter 2 Lessons on Life 

            The wind whipped my hair back off my face. The night air was cool. It slowly blew the tears off my face like butterfly kisses. I stared blankly off at the passing scenery.

            "Melody, are you okay?" asked Scott softly.

            I didn't answer.

            He didn't ask anything after that.

            In about ten minutes, we pulled up to the Xavier Institute.

            I'd only driven by it before. It was a large building, a mansion really, with lavish decorations. The fences keeping people out where heavily guarded. The cameras followed the car as we drove into the driveway.

            He parked in the garage, but led me to the front door. A man sat out in front. He was in a wheelchair. The tips of his long fingers pressed together and rested against his lips. He was bald as an egg. His brown eyes were soft and kind yet as hard as flint at the same time.

            He moved his hands from in front of his mouth and said, "Good evening, Scott. Melody."

            I gasped. "How did you know my name?"

            "This is Professor Xavier, Melody," Scott said, as if that explained everything.

            The Professor extended a hand. I took it. When he let go, he said, "I am a mutant, like you and Scott, Melody. I have the ability to enter the minds of others. I was searching for any unusual mutant activity on our computer here when I sensed another person showing mutant powers."

            "So you sent Scott to come pick me up?" I asked.

            "No. That happened to be a coincidence. He was, I believe, returning your backpack?"

            I nodded. "That's when this… Mystique showed up. I did something to her—I don't know what, but suddenly I kind of looked like her. Then my mo—the person I used to call my mother kicked me out of house. So Scott took me here."

            The Professor nodded. He put his hand on the arm of his wheelchair and made it go forward. Scott jogged ahead and opened the door. Professor X rode in and said without looking back, "Follow me, please."

            I meekly did as he said. The interior of the mansion was just as lavish as the outside. A grand staircase led upstairs. Chandeliers—_real chandeliers—were hanging from the ceiling. My mouth dropped open._

            When I caught Scott grinning at me, I shut my mouth. Swinging my arms, I asked, "So what exactly is this mutant power of mine?"

            Professor X furrowed his brow and folded his hands. "I'm actually not quite sure. I'm sure that if you let me enter your mind, I could find out."

            I shrugged. "Okay."

            He motioned for me to bend over. I did so, feeling a little freaked out. I was tired and a lot of things had happened to me. So I was docile for the moment. Normally I would have demanded to know what was going to happen.

            He put his hands on the sides of my head and closed his eyes. My own eyelids fluttered. Then, I could feel a—a—I don't know, presence—in my head. My forehead wrinkled and I grit my teeth. My mind was the only place I could escape, the only place I could be alone. It was the only thing that was really mine and mine alone.

            I guess not anymore.

            "_Do not worry, Melody," a voice that came from __inside my head told me, "_I will not intrude on your thoughts unless it's absolutely necessary_."_

            I really _am insane!_

            "_You are quite sane, actually," the voice replied, "__It is I, Professor Xavier, that is speaking to you."_

            I relaxed visibly. So I'm not a total nut-job. Good.

            Memories of my recent, life-shaking event were dragged across my mind's eye. I was forced to watch as my skin changed and I shifted shape, my features taking on Mystique's snaky look. I shivered.

            Then, suddenly, I was drawn out of my mind.

            I stumbled back in utter confusion. The world was fuzzy for a few seconds. I blinked a few times.

            "Are you all right?"

            I looked over at the Professor, who looked completely unruffled. I nodded weakly.

            "Melody, do you think you could try something for me?"

            Again, I nodded.

            "Could you try to change shape?"

            I stared at him as if he were insane. "Change shape?" I repeated incredulously.

            He nodded.

            I raised both my eyebrows and shrugged. "Well, I'll _try_," I said.

            I closed my eyes and drew a deep breath. _Okay_, I told myself, _I want to be… a… er…wolf?_

            Nothing happened.

            I opened and rolled my eyes, and was about to say that this was ridiculous when I saw my hands. Only, they weren't hands anymore. They were _paws_.

            I couldn't help it: I panicked.

            I stumbled back with a sharp bark. My tail—yes, my tail—curled between my legs. My whole body trembled with shock.

            "Melody, listen to me," the Professor said calmly, "You're fine. I can help you."

            A pathetic whine rose in my throat. I crouched low, belly scraping the floor. Thoughts whirred irrationally through my head. All I knew was that I didn't want to be a wolf anymore. No way!

            I watched in horrid fascination as my form wavered like a bad reception on the TV. My fingers stretched and reshaped. I blinked.

            Once.

            Twice.

            Then I was me again.

            I was on all fours. I slowly got to my feet. I ran my hands down my face. It was normal.

            "Is she like Rouge?" asked Scott.

            I glanced over at him. He was looking at me with great interest. I sank into the nearest chair and buried my face in my hands to hide the fact that I was shaking all over.

            "In a way, I suppose," Professor X said slowly. "She can absorb other mutants' powers, but yet she can make contact with them without hazardous effects. I think she only takes another mutant's powers willingly, or if she is in particular danger. She still possesses Mystique's power of transformation, so the effect must be permanent. She does not have any of Mystique's memories, either. It is in my belief that she could probably drain a mutant of his or her powers."

            "So—so I drained Mystique of her powers?" I asked, my face draining of all color.

            "I don't think so, Melody," the Professor said, "She broke contact with you too early for you to have taken all. Her prowess will most likely replenish itself in a matter of days."

            "Not that it would have been much of a loss," muttered Scott sourly.

            "I would like to try something now," the Professor said, folding his long fingers. "Melody, do you think you could try to absorb Scott's powers without draining him?"

            "Would I have to wear sunglasses 24/7?" I asked, eyeing Scott suspiciously.

            "If my theory is correct, then no," Professor X said, "Unless of course, Scott doesn't want you to absorb his powers?"

            Scott shrugged. "It's fine with me."

            I hesitated, then moved forward. He had to bend down a little so that I could hold his face in my hands. I looked directly into his eyes. I couldn't see them behind the sunglasses, but I could _sense them, it seemed. I could almost feel the heat from his eyes behind the frames._

            I was suddenly falling through a blood-red abyss. Power surged into my body, energy so red-hot that it burned my very veins. I gasped and shuddered. I felt his mutant power depleting. I forced my hands off his face when it was almost gone and stumbled back with my hands pressed over my eyes.

            My eyes _burned. My head was pounding. The ringing in my ears that had been there since I had left my house increased by a tenfold. I grit my teeth. My eyes were rolling back into my head. I was dimly aware of the gagging sound that escaped my lips._

            I think I must have fainted after that, because everything was black for a few moments. Someone was holding up my head, the next thing I knew. The pounding in my head had decreased.

            My eyelids fluttered and I opened them. For a brief moment, I surveyed the world. Everything was red. Then I felt something that near burned my nose off leave my eyes. Two very powerful lasers left my eyes and made big holes in the ceiling. I immediately closed my eyes again.

            "Melody, can you hear me?" asked Professor X.

            "Yeah," I said, trying to sit up. Powerful arms lifted me from the ground and dumped me in a soft armchair. I rubbed my temples to ease the pain.

            "Try to shut off the optic blasts."

            "How?" I wailed.

            "Shove it to the back of your mind. You should be in control, not your power."

            "Right," I said, giving him thumbs up. I pressed my hands over my face again. Though it hurt beyond belief, I literally tore the optic beams from my eyeballs. Though I was basically "shutting the beams off", I could still feel a tingling sensation in the back of my mind. It felt disgusting and made me squirm.

            I squinted, to make sure I wouldn't blow anyone up by looking at him. The world seemed to be normally colored again. I slowly opened my eyes. Nothing happened.

            I blinked a few times to clear my fuzzy vision. Everything seemed weirdly bright, but other than that my eyesight was fine. I looked up at Scott. He had a hand on his sunglasses, as if debating whether or not to take them off.

            He slowly slid the sunglasses from his nose. His eyes were closed, but he slowly opened them. His eyes suddenly went very wide. He looked at me through huge, bloodshot brown eyes. Though they didn't radiate huge destructive blasts, the air around them shimmered with red light.

            "D-did I do that?" I squeaked.

            The Professor nodded. "Could you try to use the blasts again?"

            I shrugged, feeling slightly uneasy. "Won't I kind of… destroy your house?"

            The Professor waved a hand in dismissal.

            Oh, great, I thought, I'm going to live with a crazy mutant who doesn't care if his house is blown up.

            I licked my lips and swung my arms. I closed my eyes and focused on the tingling feeling in the back of my head. I brought it forward. Then my whole body thrummed—_thrummed—like some sort of machine. And, when I opened my eyes, there was an explosion of red light._

            The force of it jerked my head back. I yelled and toppled over backward, eyes still open, violently tearing the middle of the wall to the ceiling to smithereens.

            There was muffled cry of shock and indignation from the room above, where I had just blown the floor up. "_Scott!" yelled the person who owned the room. _

I shut the optic beams off and rubbed my eyes. I blinked a few times to clear my fuzzy vision. I winced when I saw the damage I had done to the wall and ceiling. "Sorry," I said sheepishly.

            There was suddenly a loud noise that sounded almost like a door being slammed and an electrical shock put together, making a noise like _BAMF_. There was a flash and a big of puff of smoke that made me cough up a lung, and then I saw the strangest thing I had even seen before.

            I think it was human, and definitely a boy. There was nothing feminine about this creature. He had bright blue _fur, with long shoulder-length navy blue hair. Pointed ears stuck up through his hair. He stood in a weird fashion, more up on his toes than on flat feet. In fact, as I looked down, he __was standing on his toes. And he had _two_ of them, it turned out._

            A long, devil-like tail lashed behind him. He looked peevishly at Scott through narrowed yellow eyes. He was frowning. He was wearing baggy pants with his boxers pulled way up. His maroon shirt was _tucked in_ to his boxers. He had a khaki-colored coat on over it.

            "_Cool," I blurted before I could stop myself._

            He turned to me, looked surprised, but then grinned, revealing large eyeteeth. "Thanks. Do you I know you?" he asked in a weird accent. It sounded German.

            "Kurt, this is Melody," Professor X said.

            The blue kid, Kurt I presumed, extended a three-fingered hand. I took it. He felt as furry as he looked.

            "Hi," I said.

            Kurt turned to the Professor. "New member?" he asked.

            The Professor nodded.

            Then Kurt turned to Scott, who had put his sunglasses back on. "Why did you blow up my room?" he demanded.

            Scott raised his eyebrows. "It wasn't me."

            "Then who was it?"

            "Her."

            Kurt eyed me suspiciously. "How'd you do that? It looked like Scott's optic blasts."

            "I—I—uh…" I stuttered.

            "She didn't mean to," the Professor said. "It turns out that she can absorb other mutant's abilities."

            "Like Rouge?"

            I'm really going to have to meet this Rouge person, I thought sourly.

            Then the Professor explained my power again.

            When he finished, Kurt asked, "What's her alias?"

            I cocked my head at the Professor. "Alias? Why do we need an alias?"

            The Professor wheeled toward the window and looked out. "Humans aren't ready for us, Melody. You saw how your mother reacted. If we were to run about the streets calling out our real names and using our powers, people would find us out. Secrecy is key."

            "Oh. Um. Okay." I said, scratching the back of my neck and turning to the other two. "What's yours?"

            "Cyclops," Scott replied.

            "Nightcrawler." Kurt said proudly.

            I grinned. "Cool! What can mine be?"

            There was a thoughtful silence.

            "Leech?" suggested Scott, at the same time as Kurt said with a grin, "Sucker?"

            I raised my eyebrows at Kurt and said sarcastically, "Ha. Ha, ha. And also, ha. _Veeeery funny."_

            He grinned wider. 

I rolled my eyes. "You said I could copy other people's powers, right?" I asked.

            Nods from all the assembled.

            "How about CopyCat?" I asked.

            The Professor nodded thoughtfully, a smile slowly lighting to his face. 

"Welcome to the X-Men, CopyCat."

**A/N: Thanks to all those who reviewed, especially my Aniwizard fans! You like me, you _really_ like me! ::cough cough:: I must tell you that I all ready had this chapter done when I posted the first, so don't expect these chapters to come out at the speed Quicksilver can run. Stay tuned for "Chapter 3: Intro, Please!"**


	3. Intro, Please!

Chapter 3 Intro, Please! 

            When I came to the next morning, I had the worst migraine _ever_. My eyes stung and I could feel two lone tears trickled down my cheeks. The dream I just had had been horrible. I had strange, mutant powers and my mother hated me because of them…

            I clutched my sheets in my fists. I buried my face in my pillow and tried to stop thinking about it. In fact, I wanted to stop thinking _period_. My head hurt sooo much…

            I rolled over onto my back and rubbed my eyes. My eyelids fluttered. I squinted into the light. The world around me was hazy. I turned to my left to get my glasses, but my night table wasn't there.

            I blinked in stupor. My heart leapt into my throat. "Where am I?" I whispered.

            There was a knock at the door. "Melody! Hey, Melody!"

            Who in the world was that?       

            I shakily got to my feet. I looked down to see I was wearing my usual pajamas: silken pink pants and a matching T-shirt. I found my glasses on the dresser and hastily shoved them on. The room I was in… it was just like the one in my dream…

            I grabbed the dresser as the world spun. What was going on?

            "Melody, rise and shine!" came the voice a second time.

            I stiffly walked to the door. There was an odd buzzing sound in my ears. I swung the door open to find myself eye-level with Scott's chest. I tilted my head back and looked up into his sunglasses. I could smell him—a sweet mixture of vanilla and clean sheets.

I felt a flush rise in my face. My knees went all weak. My tongue seemed to disappear. My mind went blank. My heart skyrocketed and my stomach dropped out of existence. I gave him a watery smile.

            He smiled back. "I was just coming by to tell you to get dressed. You're going to meet the others today."

            "Others?" I asked breathlessly.

            "Yeah. The other X-Men. We'll be down in the Professor's office in fifteen minutes. See you then?"

            "Fifteen minutes?" I repeated.

            He nodded, as if I were slow. "_Yeah_."

            I nodded slowly. "Yeah. Okay."

            He raised his eyebrows. "Yeah." He said, and left.

            When he was gone, I returned to normal. I mentally kicked myself. What was wrong with me?

            Then it slowly came dawned on me…

            Did I have a _crush_ on Scott?

            I groaned. I knew the day would come when I got certain "feelings" for boys, but then, I hadn't expected it to be on a mutant boy who could blow me up by looking at me. And I didn't like to get emotional. Noooo. I hated it. I wrinkled my nose in self-disgust.

            I closed my door and went to the dresser. I was surprised to find all my things here, all put away. I ransacked the draws and pulled on a baggy blue T-shirt and equally baggy khakis. I hastily ran a comb through my hair. I poked my black eye and winced. It was healing, but it still stung.

            _BAMF_!

            I jumped about a foot and yelped. I whirled around. "Don't _do_ that," I howled at Kurt, who grinned manically back.

            "Sorry," he said, "I forgot you aren't used to me 'porting. Anyway, I'm here to take you to the office. We figured you'd get lost otherwise."

            I grinned. "Yeah. I probably would have."

            He laughed and put a hand on my shoulder. His hand tensed, which was followed by a loud _BAMF_! I was suddenly lighter than air. My stomach seemed to disappear, but it felt more exciting than sickening, like riding a roller coaster. All the hair on my body stood on end. Thrills ran unceasingly down my spine. I was nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The smell of sulfur filled my nostrils. I felt heat press on my skin. My breath caught in my throat. I had never been flying before, but this sure felt like it!

            Within seconds, there was another loud _BAMF_ and it was over. Eyes shining, I turned to the fuzzy blue mutant and exulted, "That was the coolest thing I've _ever_ done!" I grinned wider than I ever had before.

            Kurt screwed up his face and buried it in his hands, shoulders shaking. For one startled moment, I thought he was crying. But then I realized, he wasn't crying. He was _laughing_.

            "What?" I demanded. "_What_?"

            He was laughing too hard to get any sense out of him. I rolled my eyes and, as I was doing so, caught a look at myself in the mirror. At first, all I could do was stare. Then I blinked a few times and groaned.

            My hair was standing on end. Well, all right, maybe that's an exaggeration, but my hair was definitely frizzed. It looked almost as if I had gotten electrocuted. It wasn't as if any other part of me looked the least bit different. It was just my hair.

            "Hairbrush," I demanded. "I need a hairbrush."

            Now, I'm not _vain_… well, at least about my appearance. However, there was no way I was going to meet people with my hair like—like _this_!

            Kurt teleported with a loud _BAMF_. He reappeared seconds later with a hairbrush. He was still snorting as he handed to me, flicking tears of mirth from his eyes. I flared my nostrils and brushed my wild locks down. Static electricity bounced off the brush like mad and sent shocks down my fingers.

            He was still laughing as I finished. "_Shaddup_!" I yowled, throwing the brush at him. He ducked it and got back to his feet, a big stupid grin plastered across his face. 

I grabbed a pointed ear faster than he could react. He jumped and winced as the static electricity passed from my hand to his ear. "_Ow_!"

            I ran over and picked up the brush, pocketing it for later use. There was no counting how many times I would be teleporting in the future.

             Kurt gingerly rubbed his ear and swung the door open. He gestured for me to go in. "Your Majesty," he said with a mock bow.

            I ignored him and walked past him into an office-like room. Professor X sat behind a desk, smiling a warm smile. Scott was standing by the desk, with his hands clasped behind his back. I felt my insides melt and sternly told myself to stop it.

            I looked around the room. A girl with long, brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail sat in a chair. Her blue eyes sparkled as she eyed me up. I could tell she was tall and skinny, even though she remained sitting. She bobbed her head in acknowledgement, two loose pieces of hair swinging down by her face.

            Another girl sat by her, arms on her knees, propping up her face. She wore heavy makeup, with mauve eye shadow and matching lipstick. Her auburn hair fell loosely down by her shoulders. Two stripes of white hair—bleached?—framed her face. She was pale beyond belief. She looked at me out of deep, depressed brown eyes.

            She dressed like a Goth. For some reason, my attention was drawn to the black gloves on her hands. They looked heavily worn in, as if she never took them off.

            I watched an African-American boy scratch the back of his head. His hair was dyed yellow and cut oddly in the back. His boxer shorts, like Kurt's, were pulled up way past his waist so that they showed visibly. He looked slightly puzzled, as if he were still wondering what he was doing here. He had a skateboard tucked under his arm. He eyed me up in a way that made me flare my nostrils.

            The last girl in the room also stood by the Professor. Her flaming red hair tumbled down her back in wavy locks. She took me in with bright green eyes. The aura around her practically _screamed_, "POPULAR!" However, she looked kind. She beamed as I edged into the room.

            "Please sit down," the Professor said, motioning to a chair next to Goth Girl. I half sat down on it, or, rather, I sat on the edge. I felt all eyes on me, measuring me up. _So_? I asked silently, _What do you think of me_?

            "Melody, this is Kitty Pryde," —he motioned at Valley Girl— "Evan Daniels," —he pointed to Skater Boy— "Jean Grey," —he gestured to Miss Popular— "and Rouge." He nodded at Goth Girl. "Everyone, this is Melody Becker. She's the newest edition to our team."

            Everyone mumbled their hellos.

            "What can she do?" asked Jean. Her red hair flounced in a way that made me squirm. Scott looked at her with eyes full of longing. That didn't improve my situation.

            "To my understanding, she can copy other mutant's powers and abilities."

            "Like me?" spluttered Rouge, jumping instantly to life. She had a very southern accent.

            "Yes, and no," the Professor said, "You see, she can still touch people. She can take the powers when she wants. The effects seem to be permanent."

            I laughed dryly. "I didn't exactly _want_ to absorb Mystique's powers," I said, looking down at my hands. "I—I just did. I mean, I didn't _mean_ to."

            "You absorbed _Mystique_'s power?" gasped Evan.

            I flushed. "I didn't _mean_ to!"

            "Would you mind doing a demonstration?" the Professor asked lightly.

            Blink. Blink.

            "You don't have to if you don't want to." He added.

            "No, it's fine. But I won't do it unless someone volunteers."

            The Professor smiled. "Right, then. Any volunteers?"

            Cree, cree.

            "Don't all jump up at once!" I said.

            "She did it to me, and it didn't hurt," Scott said with a shrug, "All I got was a headache. That and my powers came back this morning. Believe me, I know."

            "I'll do it," Jean said hesitantly. She slid around from behind the desk and stood in front of me. I tipped my head back to look into her face. She was quite tall.

            I took a few deep breaths and put my hands on her face. I stared into her green eyes, which dilated. My pupils shrunk. Suddenly, I seemed to pitch forward. I tumbled through a green abyss. I felt power flooding my veins. My brain seemed to grow, pushing against the walls of my skull. I gasped and let go.

            I looked down at my hands. For about one second, I saw them glowing with a yellow light. I blinked and it was gone. 

            And then my headache began.

            My head throbbed. I groaned and put my head in my hands. My stomach seemed to be doing various acrobatics. I sank back down into my chair.

            When I finally looked up, Jean was rubbing her temples. Other than that, she looked fine.

            "I—I can't use my telekinesis," she said a little shakily.

            As if by instinct, I brought two fingers to my temple. I concentrated through my headache and motioned one of the vacant chairs to rise. To my complete surprise, it lifted and hovered a few inches above the ground.

            There were a few "oooohs" and "aaaahs." I set the chair down with a heavy thump. "Now I need an Advil," I complained, rubbing my forehead. I unconsciously turned the telekinesis off and shoved it to the back of my mind.

            I jumped when the doors behind me swung open, slammed against the wall, and then shuddered forward. I whirled around to see who had entered and gasped.

            A man stood in the doorway. He was incredibly short; he was probably an inch or two over my own five feet. His strange, blue-black hair flared out to the side in an unnatural way. My eyes slowly got rounder as I took in how much muscle this short dude had. He was _beefy_. 

His coal-black eyes roved the room and stopped on me. He scratched one of his sideburns and flared his nostrils, sniffing as if to take in my sent. "Who's the squirt?" he asked in a deep, growling voice.

            "Logan, this is Melody, codename CopyCat," Professor X introduced me, "Melody, this is Mr. Logan. His codename is Wolverine."

            "You look more like a bear," I blurted. I immediately clapped my hand over my mouth.

            To my great relief, Logan gave a rumbling chuckle. "Yeah, girlie, I probably do, but Wolverine sounds much better."

            I relaxed and even offered him a smile. Logan took a few, bowlegged strides to the desk. His mouth stretched into a thin line and he glared at the rest of us. "I'm talkin' to Charles now. _Alone_."

            Talk about your subtle hints. I got up and scurried to the door. My head pounded and my ears rang by the time I was out the door. I groaned and leaned against the wall.

            "Do you want something for your headache?" asked Kurt, strolling around the corner after me.

            I nodded fervently and immediately wished I hadn't.

            He grinned, exposing his larger-than-normal eyeteeth. "Don't worry. The Prof has a special remedy for headaches." He put his hand on my shoulder and tensed his hand. Suddenly, I wasn't in the corridor anymore.

            I coughed when we reappeared in what I was guessing was the infirmary. It certainly looked like one. Kurt loped over to a cabinet in the wall and pulled out a bottle labeled, "For extreme headaches". He tossed it to me. I caught it, surprised.

            "Jean usually uses it," he explained, "When she gets a headache from her telekinesis."

            I opened it and took one. Within moments, I felt it soothing my headache away. I blinked in surprise. "Wow, this is fast!" I said.

            He winked. "Only the best for the X-Men. C'mon, let's go catch breakfast before the others eat it all." He reached for my shoulder again. 

            I caught his wrist, receiving a thrill as I felt his fur. It wasn't every day I was near a fuzzy blue mutant. "Doesn't all this teleporting tire you?"

            "Usually," he said with a shrug, "But it's different with you. For some reason, when I 'port with you I seem more energized than drained."

            I released his arm. "Then let's go."

            He 'ported us to the kitchen where I was shocked to find more students than those I had met. The room was teeming was people. How Kurt had managed to 'port without landing on someone was a mystery to me.

            "Someone pass the milk!"

            "Sam, throw me a muffin!"

            "Can you eat like a normal person, Rahne!?"

            "Don't phase through the table, Kitty! I can't see the bacon!"

            "WHO SET THE TOAST ON FIRE!?"

            "Oh, no, not again!"

            "Someone put it out! Drake, use your ice!"

            "Hey! I like my toast crisp! Don't get it all soggy!"

            "Kurt, you just got fur in my eggs!"

            "Oops! Sorry, Ray!"

            I was completely overwhelmed. I grabbed the back of Kurt's shirt and yanked him back against the wall. "Is it all this hectic?" I asked, watching a tall boy with brown hair pointing at a flaming piece of toast and freezing it. A girl with long black hair and chocolate colored skin grabbed the plate of flaming food and picked the pieces up _with her hands_, munching on it (fire and all) contentedly.

            "Oh, of course," Kurt said, "You should see it on Mondays. Meet you in the hall."

            And, without further ado, he launched himself into the havoc.

            I took a deep breath. "God save my poor, broken, little body," I said and dove into the sea of students.

            I managed to get a plate of bacon and eggs. This was no easy feat. I was pushed and shoved and phased through (strange feeling, that). However, I was able to fight my way out of the kitchen and into the hall.

            I looked around for Kurt, whom I didn't see. "Kurt? Where'd you go?" I called.

            "I see you've managed the kitchen," a voice said, floating down from the ceiling, "Congratulations on passing your first major test."

            I jerked in shock and snapped my head back. Kurt hung from a light on the ceiling by his tail. He had his plate balanced on his foot and was eating from it upside down. "So how do you like the Institute?" he asked.

            "I don't know quite yet," I said, a grin spreading across my face, "But I think I'm going to love it."****

**A/N: Er… Sorry that took so long. I've been working on my other story, "Aniwizard Adventures 2: Wizards and Controllers" and my original story. It's been such a long time but, heh, better late than never! I'll try to get them out faster, I promise! And don't yell at me, my Aniwizard fans, because I've been working on this story. I'm in an X-Men mood tonight. **

**Stay tuned for "Chapter 4: This Means War!" (Hey, it rhymes!!) And this is Padfoot, over and out.**


	4. This Means War!

Chapter 4 This Means War! 

            "That was _horrible_," I moaned as I staggered out of the Danger Room.

            "The first day of training is always hard," Kurt agreed.

            I looked at my mangled glasses. "Yeah, that and the fact my glasses kept falling off. They're broken beyond repair now!"

            He took them in his three-fingered hand and examined it. A couple of twists and three minutes later, he returned them looking like new. I blinked down at them. "Um… never mind."

            "Just ask the Professor if you can fix your glasses into you uniform somehow. He'll come up with something."

            "Do people normally file complaints for the Professor?"

            "It's not a complaint, it's an adjustment," he said, winking.

            I rolled my eyes.

            My first full day at the Institute had passed quickly. Kurt and I had become fast friends. Everyone had accepted me into the Institute as if I had been there for years. This shocked and intrigued me. No one had ever accepted me as completely these mutants had. This place felt much more like home than my house ever had.

Saturday had been a day of rest and relaxation, but now that the Professor had secured me with a uniform it meant that I was a part of the team—which meant training. 

Weekends weren't going to be as relaxing as they used to be.

            "Where is the Professor now? Would he be in his office?" I asked.

            Kurt shrugged. "He usually is. We can go check."

            "Okay."            

            Teleporting was always as thrilling as the first time I had done it. Kurt had told me it made some people feel queasy and nauseous. This was a mystery to me. It was always exciting to me.

            He held his hand up. I slapped it as if I were giving him a high-five and suddenly found myself in the Professor's office.

            The Professor looked up when we appeared, not in the least bit ruffled. He shifted the papers he had been looking at and settled them on his desk. Without looking up, he said, "Hello, Kurt. Melody. Is something the matter?"

            "Professor," I began timidly, "My glasses… they…"

            "Keep falling off?" he finished for me, now looking up.

            I nodded. "Can we… I dunno… somehow incorporate it into my uniform somehow?"

            The Professor looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe…" he said, thinking aloud. Then, "Perhaps, Melody, if you absorb some of Logan's mutation you might never need glasses again."

            "Ever?" I asked incredulously. The idea was quite foreign. I had had glasses ever since I could remember.

            "Ever."

            "What _is_ Logan's mutation?"

            "He has the Healing Factor," he said. Then, seeing my perplexed expression, added, "It means that, whenever he is injured in some way, it heals immediately."

            "_Oooh_," I said.

            _Logan_, the Professor called mentally, _Logan, would you please come to my office?_

            I heard no reply, but only a moment later Logan came striding into the office. Like the first time I had seen him, he was wearing a navy blue T-shirt that was stretched over his muscles and ragged jeans. He leaned against the doorjamb and crossed his arms. "Yeah, Charles?"

            "I would like to experiment with something. Would you allow Melody here to absorb some of your mutation?" the Professor asked.

            "Absorb some of my mutation? Oh, so that's what the squirt does. Fine. As long as I'm able to fight afterwards." Logan replied.

            "Go easy on it, then, Melody. Okay?" the Professor told me.

            I nodded, preparing myself to take some energy off Logan. I took a few steps toward him and raised my hands. I froze, however, when I saw them pulsing with a yellow light. The air around them shimmered like summer heat off pavement. I rolled my shoulders and choked my cry of surprise down.

            I took a deep breath and put my hands on his cheeks. The stubble on his face felt rough against my soft palms. I suppressed a shudder and looked up into his coal black eyes.

            At once, I was swimming in a sea of darkness. Power flooded my senses. I felt his energy depleting. When it was about halfway gone, I pulled my hands away and staggered back.

            Logan sagged against the wall. My head pounded. All my senses tingled. It felt as if every nerve in my body had pins and needles. I tried to move my fingers and experienced a shooting pain in every digit. I stumbled backwards and fell over the arm of a chair.

            I closed my eyes and tried to stop the pain. This only made my nerves burn worse than before. I moaned and writhed where I lay.

            "Melody!" cried Kurt, sounding panicked. I heard—not saw—him bound over to me and felt him take my hand.

            "_DON'T TOUCH ME_!" exploded from my lips. I thrashed wildly and nearly flung him across the room.

            "Melody, what is it?" the Professor asked in a loud and soothing voice, "We cannot help you if you do not tell us."

            "_Oooh_," I groaned, "My nerves… they're on _fire_…"

            "Aaah," Logan rumbled thoughtfully, "That's what it feels like whenever my Healing Factor kicks in."

            I felt the Professor project soothing thoughts into my head. The pain gradually faded. My breathing slowed. I relaxed my tensed muscles.

            "_Ow_," I finally managed.

            "Feeling better now, Melody?" asked the Professor.

            I nodded slowly. "Yeah."

            "Good."

            I struggled to sit up and was surprised to find the world was strangely distorted. My eyes were hurting, too. I squinted and blinked a few times, but my vision didn't clear. It took me a few moments to realize that it was my glasses causing the distortion.

            I whipped them off and gasped. The world was as clear as it had always been _with_ my glasses on. I examined the world through my renewed sight with a stupid grin plastered on my face. "I can _see_!" I exulted.

            The Professor smiled. "As I had hoped you would."

            I looked around the room. Everything seemed slightly unreal. I got to my feet and took a few wobbly steps. My legs still felt like they were asleep. Quite suddenly, my knees buckled. Kurt dove forward and caught my arm before I fell.

            "Now, Melody, I want you to shut the Healing Factor off. I need to see something." The Professor said.

            I shrugged. "Sure," I said, concentrating and closing my eyes. My nerves burned for a moment, but then all the pain left. I opened my eyes.

            And found to my horror that the world was blurry again.

            I said a string _very_ impolite words.

            Logan looked impressed.

            "I'll be guessing that means your eyesight has returned to its former states," the Professor said lightly, shuffling through his papers again. Color rose in my cheeks and I nodded, sliding my glasses back on my nose.

            "Why is that, Professor?" asked Kurt, unable to check his curiosity.

            The Professor glanced up. "I think it may be because it is something she was born with, something that is a part of her. Undoubtedly, she will be able to heal her injuries, but this… no."

            "So then can we incorporate my glasses into my uniform somehow?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

            "Sure," the Professor replied. "I actually have the design for a new uniform. I was wondering whether or not your glasses were a problem, so I drew up this as an alternative." He held out a piece of paper to me.

            I took it and looked down in mild surprise. The picture showed a definitely feminine figure in a uniform similar but very different to the one I had worn before. 

It was completely black but for the mauve "V" shape down the front and back. It stretched down tightly over the whole figure and up to the neck, including the hands. A yellow belt hung loosely from the hips with a square belt buckle that was shaped as an "X". Mauve work boots came up to about mid-shin. Two slanted bands of the same color circled the wrists, crossing each other to form another "X".

            Those weren't the only modifications. There was also a mask to match it. It covered the upper half of the face, exposing the mouth and jaw and looking somewhat like Wolverine's mask. It was black, also, but for the two mauve protrusions that looked almost like sideways cat ears. The eyes were drawn so that the lenses were visible.

            My breath caught when I looked at it. "Cool," I blurted, a grin stretching over my face. I liked this one much better than the other one. "When can I get it?" I asked eagerly.

            The Professor laughed. "In about a week," he said.

            "Thanks!"  
            "You are very welcome," he replied.

            I grinned at him again and gave the paper back, then turned back to ran to Kurt. He held out his hand, which I took, and suddenly we weren't in the Professor's office again. I grinned to myself.

            I definitely loved this place.

~*~

            "Melody, _hurry up_!"

            "There's a _line_ out here!"

            "I need to take a shower!"

            "You've been in there for _ten minutes_!"

            "C'mon, Melody, it's only the first day of school!"

            I checked myself in the bathroom mirror for the fifteenth time. My hair, clean and dry, fell in straight locks past my shoulders. The black eye I had gotten from the bullies had healed when I had used the Healing Factor. My teeth were as clean as they possibly could be. The skin on my face was pink from scrubbing.

            Frowning, I eyed my attire. I was wearing camouflage green, baggy pants with a lot of pockets and an equally baggy, maroon shirt. Holding back my hair, I debated on whether or not to keep it that way.

            "Melody?"

            I jumped and whirled when I saw the upper half of Kitty's body sticking through the door, unable to contain a shriek of terror. I clapped my hands over my heart. "Don't _do_ that!"

            She grinned. "Sorry," she said, stepping completely through the door, "I forgot you're not used to me doing that. And don't worry about school, you look _fine_."

            I sighed and closed my eyes. "Okay, okay. Fine. I'll come out."

            Striding forward, I reached past Kitty and pulled the door open.

            Cheers erupted. My cheeks flushed and I rolled my eyes, carefully skirting past everyone so I could pick up my backpack. When I got to my room, I strange boy I had never seen before leaned against the wall.

            He was taller than I was, with shoulder-length blue-black hair. His dark blue eyes glinted when his saw me and he grinned widely when he saw my confusion. I frowned at this sallow-skinned stranger and walked past him without saying anything.

            "Whassamatter, Melody? You don't recognize me?" asked a very familiar voice.

            I jumped and looked up and down the corridor for Kurt, but saw no one but the boy who leaned against the wall.

            Finally, I turned to the boy and demanded, "Who are you?"

            Which caused him to laugh hysterically.

            My face flushed. "I don't see what's so funny," I said irritably.

            "That's because you're not 'seeing' straight," he said, lifted his arm, and pressed a button his watch. His visage flickered and shimmed. I jumped back with a cry as the kid became Kurt.

            I couldn't help the way I stared. "You—but—how—_what was that_?" I demanded.

            He laughed. "It's my holographic inducer. When I have it on, I can go to school because I look like everyone else." He turned it on again.

            I shook my head. "That was _mean_," I told him bluntly, swinging the door to my room open. My room was a complete mess, even though it had been only a few days. I rummaged through the wreckage for my backpack. When I found it, I slung it over my shoulder and strode out of my room with great dignity.

            "Awww, c'mon," he said, plodding after me, "It wasn't _that_ bad."

            I raised a brow. "For your information, that was very bruising to my pride."

            "So? What's so bad about that?" he asked.

            I closed my eyes as I opened the door to the garage. "My pride is the only thing I have left."

            He pouted. "No, it isn't," he said sulkily as we walked through the door, "You still have us."  
            I blinked in surprise and looked at him. He chose this moment to look carefully away. I bit my lip. We didn't speak again until we got to Scott's car.

            "We're going in this?" I said finally.

            Kurt nodded. "No finer way to travel—except by X-Jet."

            "There's a jet?" I asked, mystified.

            "Jean, hurry up! We'll be late again!" Scott yelled over his shoulder as he ran into the garage. My insides melted. He yanked the door open and jumped in. Kurt rolled his eyes at me and jumped in over the door. I pulled the door open and sat down quickly, for my knees were weak.

            Jean came running, her hair flouncing over her shoulders. She was quickly pulling a comb through her hair. Running around the car, she used her telekinesis to open the car door and sat down.

            That's when Scott put the pedal to the medal.

            "_SCOTT_!" Jean screamed.

            I laughed hysterically as we literally flew out of the garage. Kurt moaned and clutched the door tightly, so as not to slide across the seat into me. I grinned manically at him. He sank further into his seat.

            The ride to school was nothing short of exciting. It was as exhilarating as the Danger Room exercise!

            When Scott pulled up in front of the school, my happy feelings melted away. My heart began to pound. All ready the students were looking at me, deciding who I was. They were all ready classing me into clichés by my clothing and looks. Once I tried to talk to them, they would all ready have my personality stored away and they wouldn't give me a chance. I would never fit in, like I hadn't at Albright's.

            Kurt saw my change of expression. "What?" he asked jokingly, "Too scary for you?"

            "Yes," I muttered, sinking down in my seat.

            He blinked in surprise. "I saw you face the Danger Room like it was nothing. Fitting in to a new school can't be _that_ bad. I mean, other kids can't be that scary."

            "You don't understand," I said, heaving a sigh, "I _know_ what machines do. I _know_ how they act. _They_ never break routine. _They _are controlled. _They_ never change. _They_ don't have an opinion of you. People—_shallow­_ people—do before they even meet you."

            He looked mildly shocked. "I never thought of it that way."  
            "I do."

            "Well, forget about it. You have us from the Institute. We should really go to Mr. Kelly's office now, though. You'll be late on your first day of school. It won't look very good."

            I nodded and, looking ill, got out of the car. Kurt led me into the school and up to the principal's office. He stopped before the door. "Well, here you are," he said, nodding, "I can't go with you. Good luck."

            He turned and walked away.

            I held my breath and turned to the door. Raising a shaking fist, I hesitated but rapped loudly on the door.

            There was no immediate answer. I glanced around. The secretary met my eye and smiled kindly. I gulped and smiled back. She must have known I was coming today.

            "Come in, come in," called a voice that sounded vaguely irritated.

            I timidly eased the door open and slid inside, taking in my surroundings. A man sat at the desk directly across from me. He had mousy brown hair that was swept neatly to the side and a thin mouth. Blinking at me through large eyeglasses, he stood when he saw me. I realized he was tall.

            "Ah, you must be the new student," said who I presumed to be Mr. Kelly.

            I nodded meekly.

            "Melody Becker, right? From Albright's School for Gifted Children?"

            I nodded again and ventured quietly, "Yes, but I'm transferring here now that I'm living at the Xavier Institute."

            Mr. Kelly had a drastic change of facial expressions. I looked very taken aback, so he carefully controlled it. "Yes, yes, of course," he said, suddenly cold, "I have a student who will show you around. She is in all of your classes."

            "Yessir," I said.

            He pressed a button on the intercom and said, "Ashleigh Giovanni to the office," he said curtly.

            Moments later, an Irish looking girl—all red hair and freckles—walked into the office. I blinked in surprise. Wasn't Giovanni an _Italian_ name?

            "Hey, new kid," Ashleigh said brightly, grinning an ear-to-ear grin, "I'm Ashleigh, and I'm supposed to show you around. Don't call me Ashleigh, though, I hate that name. Call me Ash."

            I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face. She stuck out her hand, which I took, and shook my hand so vigorously that my glasses slid down my nose. "I'm Melody," I said shyly.

            "Oooh, man, you're so lucky!" Ash cried as she led me out of the office, "I wish I had a cool name like Melody, instead of _Ashleigh_." She wrinkled her nose in disdain. "Why did my fool of a mother name me that, of all the names she could have chosen?"

            She led me down the corridors and stopped in front of a locker. Pointing to the one beside the one she was opening, she said, "That's your locker. I've got you're combination right here." She stuck her tongue out as she fumbled for an index card and paper that was stuffed messily into her backpack. "Uuuum… six, twenty one, zero. Oh, and this is your class schedule."

            I looked at the paper she gave me, studying my classes. All honors classes. I winced. "Are the honors classes different than the regular ones?" I asked as I fumbled to open my locker.

            "Yeah," she grunted, pulling a book from a haphazard pile that looked ready to topple, "They have nicer teachers and they give you more points than the college prep." She winked.

            I grinned.

            As I was putting away the books I didn't need, Ash said, "Look, I have to go pass in this extra credit paper for my—excuse me, _our_—English teacher. Do you mind if I meet you there?"

            "Nope, as long as you remember I exist," I joked, surprising myself.

            She cackled. "I can't guarantee that. Take a left and go down five doors and you're there. See you." She flounced off, waving at quite a few people as she passed. Half of her gave her strange looks.

            I stood in a stupor. Had I just made a friend? And that quickly?

            Maybe this public high school thing wasn't as hard as it seemed.

            I shut my locker and fiddled with the zipper on my backpack. It got stuck halfway up. To my utter frustration, it refused to budge either way. Frowning, I glanced up and down the corridors. No one was watching. If I just…

            I eased my telekinesis to the front of my mind, activating it. Using it, I managed to zip and unzip the backpack several times. I smiled to myself.

            "H-e-e-e-ey! It's new kid in the geek squad!"

            At first, I thought this comment wasn't directed at me, so I ignored it. But, as I turned, I realized that it _was_ about me.

            I blinked in surprise. Five kids stood gathered around me: four boys and one girl. The girl was tall with bleached blond hair that stuck out to the side, many piercing, and a wide grin on her sassy mouth. She grinned at me, filing her nails as she did so. I stared.

            "Yeah, we mean _you_, X-nerd," laughed one of the boys, talking so quickly that it seemed to be one word. Leaning against the locker beside me, he studied me with dark eyes. His white-blond hair was slicked back and he had a face that made girls that passed eye him. 

            "Look, I don't know who you are, but leave me alone," I said, trying to shoulder my way past.

            A boy with shoulder-length brown hair and wicked brown eyes put a hand on my shoulder. "And why should we?" he asked.

            "Yeah, why _should_ we?" asked the stupidest of the lot. At least, that's how he _looked_. He was as wide as he was tall, with an electric-yellow Mohawk on his squat head.

            A boy that looked uncannily like a toad snickered. "You can't get by us without a fee, X-kid," he said, holding out his hand.

            My telekinesis was still on. I furrowed my brow and imagined the brown-haired boy staggering back to let me pass. To my amazement, he did. I strut past, but the boy who talked fast grabbed the back my shirt. "Hey, _no one_ rejects the Brotherhood."

            My eyebrows lifted. So _this_ was the infamous Brotherhood. "Yeah, no one but the X-Men," I said, smirking, and walked away again.

            The brown-haired boy opened his mouth to speak, but someone interrupted him. "Leave her alone, Alvers," said Scott, who stood down the hall but was approaching quickly. I nearly sighed, but caught myself. My knight in shining sunglasses!

            "Yeah? And why should I, Summers?" the kid asked.

            "Lance?" I glanced to the left. Kitty stood near us, too, clutching her books to her chest. "Lance, stop it." She paused, then added, "Please?"

            Lance's expression softened. He looked at Kitty with a strange yearning on his face. Hesitating, he finally backed away.

            "Why should we?" continued the fast talking-boy.

            "Because she's with us, Pietro," said a new voice with a German lilt. Kurt was suddenly there too. He glowered at Pietro and clenched his fingers on his books, looking as if he were wondering whether or not to throw them.

            "Who's going to make us? _You_?" laughed Pietro.

            "Us," growled Evan, appearing at Pietro's shoulder. Bone spikes grew on his arm. "Now let her go."

            I clenched my fists and concentrated like I was going to absorb their mutations (for they had to be mutants). My hands shimmered and glowed yellow again. I felt energy—from where I didn't know—seeping into my body. The toad boy, who had been closest to me, backed away nervously.

            "If you don't let me go, then you can kiss your powers goodbye," I growled softly, shifting my hands so that they were visible to the Brotherhood but not to anyone else. We were attracting enough attention as it was.

            "You're bluffing," said Lance nervously.

            I cocked my head. "You want to try me?"

            Lanced backed down. "C'mon, guys, this ain't worth it," he muttered, leading his friends away.

            I shut off the absorption. "You do know what this means, right?" I asked.

            "What?" Pietro sneered, "That this only the beginning?"

            I grinned. "Yeah, that," I said, "And that this _means war_."

            The Brotherhood ignored me and walked away. I quietly thanked Scott, Kitty, Kurt, and Evan for their help, thinking over what had just happened. Yeah, this was only the beginning.

            The beginning of a war.

A/N: And that, ladies of gentleman, is the cryptic sentiments of Padfoot. Heh, heh. Well, I got the Brotherhood in there. There wasn't really any action though. I'm saving that for the next chapter. Bwah! Big battle! Melody's first. Now, that's gonna be fun! That and her special new uniform! Thanks for your reviews!

**Stick around for my next chapter, "Chapter 5: Fire and Ice"!!**


	5. Fire and Ice

Chapter 5 Fire and Ice 

            The next week passed blissfully. I absorbed several new mutations: Kitty's phasing ability, Evan's bony spikes, Ray's electricity, Roberto's solar strength, Jubilee's sparks, and Sam's… well, Sam's "special" talent.

            I had asked Kurt whether I could absorb some of his teleportation, but he had flat out refused. We were best friends, but he didn't want anyone else to have his mutation, he told me. That and the fact he weirded me out by telling me I might grow blue fur and a tail if I tried.

            The new mutants and I had just completed a training session with Logan. He had left, which meant that we could goof off if we wanted to. At the moment, we were in the backyard of the mansion. Most of us were as tired as anything, but some of us… weren't.

            "Watch this!" cried Bobby, codenamed Iceman for a very apparent reason. He iced himself up and created an ice slide to the roof of the Institute. He waved at us from there and jumped down on the slide, sliding to a stop (on his feet) in front of Amara, who was also called Magma.

            "Oh, yeah?" she asked, grabbing the slide in her hands. Bursting into flame, she neatly melted his slide. He gaped at her. She smirked. From my experience with them, they often fought like… well, like fire and ice.

            I raised a brow. "Yeah, well, watch this!" I said loudly. I shape shifted myself to look like Evan and sprouted bony spikes, which I shot into a nearby tree. "Eat that, Pietro!" I called in his voice, looking triumphant.

            "Showoff," muttered Rahne, a.k.a. Wolfsbane.

            "It's not like you can mix fire and ice," Bobby said with a sniff. He circled me. "You don't even have my ice, or Amara's fire. But I bet if you did, you couldn't."

            I set myself into absorbing mode. "Wanna bet?" I asked.

            "Sure," he said, stepping boldly forward.

            I put my hands on his face and glared into his eyes. I pitched forward into a whirling, brown abyss. Cold filled my body. It surged into my body through my hands. When his energy was almost gone (for there wasn't much left), I released and staggered back.

            I fell on my butt and wrapped my arms around myself, shivering uncontrollably. The warm spring air felt suddenly too hot to bear. Gooseflesh rose on my arms and legs. My breath rose as a mist. "J-j-j-j-j-j-j-j-j-j-jeez!" I spluttered.

            Bobby, Amara, Rahne, and Jamie, who had never seen me absorb someone's power and didn't know its effect on me, looked horrified.

            "Don't worry," Jubilee said, "That happens. It'll stop in a few seconds."

            "I-i-i-i-i-i-it h-h-had b-better," I said, shuddering as the intense cold faded. I lay on the ground for a moment after it had stopped and finally sat up, rubbing my now-glowing hands together. Now that I had taken some of Bobby's energy, I felt pumped up. "You ready, Amara?"

            Amara looked at Bobby, who was now using a bench to help himself stand. She took a deep breath and stepped forward. "Yeah."

            I put my hands on her face, as I had Bobby. Within moments, I was again swirling down in a brown abyss—but this time, it was warm. And as I absorbed her power, I realized that it wasn't warm. It was _hot_!

            I shrieked in pain when I had depleted most of Amara's strength, reeling backwards. My whole body was painfully burning to a crisp! Or so it felt. I fell on my back and twitched convulsively. Writhing, my eyes rolled up into my head. I couldn't feel my body for the pain.

            Slowly, the pain faded away. I sat panting on the ground when I finally left me. Everyone was bent over me, looking concerned. I guess it never occurred to them to go get help.

            I struggled to sit up and looked around, blinking. "_Ow_," I said finally.

            "She's all right," said Roberto with a snort. 

            I rubbed my head. "I didn't think it would _burn_," I complained. "It hurts!"

            "Apparently," said Bobby dryly.

            Scrambling to my feet, I realized that I also had a splitting headache. "Oooh," I moaned as the world spun, "Maybe I shouldn't have done that." I staggered sideways and caught myself on the bench Bobby had been leaning against. "Maybe I can't do the fire and ice thing."

            "Hah," said Bobby triumphantly, "I knew it! You _can't_! Either that or you're _scared_!"

            Okay, _that_ struck a chord. I fought off my nausea and stood as straight as possible. "I am _not_," I stated with great dignity.

            "Then I _dare_ you to do it," he said.

            I set my jaw. "Fine," I snapped, concentrating on both the fire and the ice at same time. I felt hot and cold at the same time. In fact, it felt like they were fighting each other for the passage out of storage. It was as if they both couldn't fit into my presence of mind at the same time.

            And speaking of my mind…

            My head felt like it was going to split in half. I growled determinedly and concentrated harder. Sweat beaded on my forehead. The splitting feeling increased a ten fold. Half wanted fire, and the other half wanted ice.

            As I concentrated, I saw a gray void at the corners of my eyes. I had no idea what this was—maybe another factor of my power—so I ignored it. It spread as I pumped my focus up a notch. Soon it had completely taken over my vision.

            And then everything went black.

~*~

            When I awoke, I realized I was no longer in the backyard. My vision was blurry. I blinked a few times to clear it and found I _definitely _wasn't in the backyard anymore.

            In fact, I was in the infirmary. I rubbed my temples, which were throbbing, and sat up. The world spun for a moment before settling back down into place. My mouth was dry. I glanced about me for a glass of water and found one on the night table, which I took and drained immediately.

            "So, squirt, you're finally awake," growled a very familiar voice.

            I choked on the drink and coughed, eyes watering. Logan had entered the room, unnoticed, and was standing at the end of my bed with his eyebrows raised. "W-what?"

            He gave a rumbling chuckle. "You've been out all night and day. It's about six in the evening, now. The Prof will be glad you're awake."

            I swung my legs out of bed and stood. My headache was bad, but no other part of me ached like that. Logan took my shoulder and shoved me back down on the bed. "Not until Charlie says you can," he said softly.

            Grumpily, I wrapped my blankets around my shoulders. This was when I noticed that I wasn't wearing my uniform (still my old one; I don't have the new one yet), but my pajamas. I opened my mouth to ask who had changed me, but then the Professor arrived.

            He wheeled quickly into the room. My eyes widened in some surprise. Man, that wheelchair could move!

            "What," the Professor began, ignoring the usual greetings, "were you thinking?"

            I stared at him. He sounded angry, and that besides he was livid. "Er…"

            "You nearly killed yourself!" he said, almost in a shout.

            Logan looked decidedly uncomfortable. "I'll be leaving now," he said, sweeping out the room.

            "Your head nearly exploded!"  
            I winced. "That wouldn't have been good," I said in a quiet voice, frightened and horrified. I had never seen the Professor this angry before. I had seen him agitated, yes, but never as _furious_ as he was now. My heart pounded loudly. I wasn't going to be thrown out of here, too, was I?

            His expression softened as he caught the thread of my thoughts. "You're not going to get thrown out of here," he said gently, "You just gave us all a good scare."

            I relaxed visibly. "I didn't mean to…" I said tiredly, "I mean, I can shift my shape and use another power at the same time. I always figured… well… I could do it with all my powers."

            "Apparently not," the Professor replied, rubbing his forehead. "I believe that your morphing ability is what we'd call your base power. It was the first you absorbed, and the basis for all your energy. This is probably why you can shift and use any other ability you have. Other than that, you can only use one power at a time."

            "That would have been nice to know beforehand," I retorted.

            He shook his head. "I'm sorry. It has always been a suspicion, and I have never had the time to put it to the test."

            I gnawed on my lower lip for a moment, wanting desperately not to forgive him, but how could I not after he had taken me in like he did? "That's okay," I uttered grudgingly.

            He relaxed. "Good. Well, rest up. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. You'll be going back to Logan's sessions."

            "Okay," I said, sliding down beneath the blanket and barely suppressing a groan.

            "Oh, and Melody?"

            "Yeah?"

            "I don't know if I should tell you this now, but… well, you'll find out sooner or later. Melody, you have the potential to be one of the world's most powerful mutants. Everyday, my computer Cerebro registers your power growing larger and larger. You will be much sought after by other groups. Be careful with your choices."

            And, with that, he left.

            I thought on what he said, heart pounding again. One of the most powerful mutants in the world? Being a mutant was hard enough to handle. It frightened me, really, to know that my decisions would actually have such a large effect on people.

            Maybe if I just left to live the life of a recluse…

            "Melody!"

            I nearly coughed up a lung when Kurt 'ported into the room. He looked genuinely concerned, which made me feel _a little_ better. He grinned broadly when he saw me. "You're all right!"

            "Of course I am!" I replied, laughing.

            "Mien Gott, don't do that to me! You'd have thought you were dead if you had seen yourself! But you _are_ all right now, aren't you?" 

            "Like new," I replied.

            He fumbled in the table beside my bed for something. When he straightened, I saw him holding a chessboard. "You play?"

            "I love chess!" I replied, so he grinned and started to set it up. "But don't you want to do something better? I mean, being shut up in the infirmary can't be all that fun."  
            "It can be when you have someone with you," he replied, and promptly busied himself with setting it up.

            I felt like I wanted to cry, just then. My eyes moistened and my heart thumped. I had never had a friend before. Not in my life. I had always wondered what it was like, having a friend, but I had never had anything but books to comfort me. I had never really considered Kurt my friend, just an acquaintance, someone to waste my time away with. I closed my eyes and turned away, so that Kurt couldn't see how wet they looked.

            "Go on," he urged when he finished setting it up, "White moves first."

            I turned back to him with a grin wide so big it must have looked scary, but he didn't seem to notice.

            I guess this is what friendship is like.

            And I sure hope I am never without it again.

~*~

            I got my new uniform the next day. Of course, the moment I got it, I _had_ to try the mask on to see if it worked. It did, as I hadn't doubted it would. I was admiring myself in the mirror when the Professor's voice rang in my mind, "_X-Men, please join me at Cerebro. There is something I wish to discuss with you._"

            Ambling out of my room, I caught Kurt before he 'ported. He was obliged to bring me down with him. We were the first ones to reach Cerebro.

            I had never seen it before, so I was completely mystified when I walked in. The room was a sphere with a walkway in it, leading down to a desk-sized computer. I had never would have dreamt it was so large! Mouth open, I padded toward the Professor.

            He was wearing a strange, helmet-like device on his head. A big hologram floated before him. It was a gigantic map of the States. Two red pinpoints of light was flashing somewhere in the middle of Utah. Five other pinpoints were moving rapidly toward this pinpoint.

            "Professor, you called?" asked Scott. He was in his uniform: a black jumpsuit with an "X" across the chest, yellow boots that came up to knees with kneepads, yellow gloves, and a visor with a strip of ruby quarts that covered his eye, making him look like he had one eye. The suit was so tight it showed off his muscles. He must have been working out in the Danger Room. Sweat glistened on his forehead.

I simpered weakly and grinned stupidly. My heart thudded painfully against my ribcage. 

            "I have discovered two new mutants," the Professor said, "In Salt Lake City, Utah."

            "Yeah, so?" asked Kitty, tossing her ponytail, "You, like, find new mutants everyday."

            The Professor nodded. "Yes, but I'm afraid the Brotherhood is all ready on their way to get them."

            "How?" demanded Rouge, "They don' have a computer like Cerebro, do they?"

            "Not that aware of, Rouge," the Professor replied. "In fact, I don't know how they know. However, we'd better reach those mutants before they do."

            "I'm going?" I asked incredulously as Professor powered Cerebro down and removed the helmet.

            He nodded again. "Yes. I believe that, if we have a run-in with the Brotherhood, you may come in useful. Also, this will be an opportune moment for you to absorb their abilities. Now, suit up, everyone! Scott, prep the _Blackbird_. Everyone be down in the hangar in five minutes!"

            Kurt 'ported us back up to my room, where I ran inside and quickly suited up. The new uniform felt strange and tight, with spandex pressing down on my skin on all sides. In fact, it felt more like some other substance than spandex. It just _looked_ like it.

            I stared at the stranger in the mirror after I had pulled my mask on. She was short, albeit thinner than I had used to be. Long, brown hair flowed out the back of the mask and cascaded down over her back. Her mouth was slack, showing the surprise that I felt; yet the mask rendered the rest of her face emotionless. The lenses in the eyepieces hid her eyes. She brought a hand to her face and ran it down her cheek.

            She was… _pretty_, as I had never been.

            Kurt hammered on the door. "C'mon, hurry up!" he called.

            I walked numbly over to the door and swung it open. His fist stopped in midair. Surprise made his jaw drop. "Whoa," he said. "You look… different."

            I nodded. "Yeah. I noticed."

            "Well, we'd better get down to the hangar…"

            "Yeah. We should, shouldn't we?"

            He took my gloved hand and flashed me a grin. I smiled weakly as the world around as winked out of existence. Moments later, it returned.

            And I did not recognize where I was.

            I gasped when I saw the _Blackbird_. It was _huge_! It was an aerodynamic wonder! I had never seen anything like it before! It was completely black, with sleek wings and cockpit. Ominously large engines were revving.

            "We'd better hurry up," Kurt said, starting toward the ramp, "Or they'll leave without us."

            "You mean there's _more_?" I demanded.

            He laughed and shook his head, falling onto all fours and running up it. I followed at a slower pace, up into the cockpit. He pointed to the seat next to his, where I sat down, and pulled a seat buckle with an—yes, you guessed it—"X" on it.

            Moments later, Scott gunned the engines. The _Blackbird_ shot forward with amazing speed. I grasped the arms of my seat in tight fists. Kurt grinned at me.

            The flight to Salt Lake City took only an hour, another wonder. Once we were near enough, the Professor put his fingers to his temples to try to get a reading on the Brotherhood. "Northeast," he told Scott.

            The _Blackbird_ turned.

            Professor Xavier motioned us down in the suburbs of Salt Lake City.

            The Brotherhood arrived in the backyard of the house we were going to at the same moment we did. This was the only house for miles. Lance—or Avalanche, as I was later told—looked extremely perturbed when he saw us. "What are _you_ doing here?"

            "That's exactly what _I_ was going to ask _you_," Scott retorted, stepping forward and lifting his hand to his visor.

            Quicksilver grinned. "Our new secret weapon," he replied, talking even faster than he had in school.

            Another boy stepped forward, one I hadn't "met" in school. His skin was the color of chocolate, which was normal enough, but it was his eyes that startled me. They were a belligerent shade of red. I took an involuntary step backward. 

He flicked an imaginary mote of dust off his spotless uniform, a black jumpsuit covered with what looked like gray plastic armor on his elbows, knees, and chest. A gray belt hung from his hips with a variety of ominous looking, pointed objects from his belt.

            "Meet Allen Smith," Avalanche said, "or Sonar, to you. He can sense new mutants before their powers manifest and what the powers will be."

            I quirked a brow which, of course, couldn't be seen from beneath my mask.

            "You're not the only one with a new member," Jean said. Kitty nudged me forward. I did my best to retain my dignity and held my head high.

            "Meet Melody Becker," Scott said, mocking Avalanche, "or CopyCat, to you."

            He didn't explain what my powers were.

            Avalanche held his hand out before him. "Bring it on," he said. His eyes rolled up into his head and he lifted his foot, bringing it down hard on the ground. The ground split rapidly, straight at me.

            I looked to Jean. She nodded and quickly fell on her knee, pressing her fingers hard to her temples. I lifted from the ground and shot at Avalanche. His eyes widened when he saw this and he dodged. I turned on my absorbing power—which I now called my "receptive mode"—as I hit the ground hard. My hands glowed yellow.

            He got to his feet and tried to shake the ground again. I lunged forward and tackled him, pressing my hands to his face. Power surged through my arms, burning like fire. I was draining him rapidly. Soon, his mutation would be completely gone…

            Something hit me from the side. I shrieked as I was torn away from Avalanche and hit the ground hard. My whole body shook with the seismic waves that pulsed below me. Eyes rolling up to my head, I tried to suppress the shudders and failed.

            Quicksilver ran around me in circles, so fast I was actually lifted from the ground inside a mini tornado. I fought my new power down and pumped up my telekinesis, placing my fingers on my temples and thrusting my palm at him. He flew backwards as I dropped like a stone.

            _BAMF_!

            Kurt grabbed me before I hit the ground and safely 'ported me to the ground. My head spun wildly. I staggered a few steps and leaned on him for support. "Thanks, Nightcrawler," I said once the world settled back into place.

            "No problem," he replied, falling onto all fours and bounding back into the battle.

            I glanced at the house. Four people stood at the window, watching the battle play itself out with horror. Two of them were young girls, undoubtedly the new mutants. I winked at the girls and dived back into the fight.

            Gasping, I dodged when Fred, a.k.a. Blob, tried to belly flopped on top of me. As he got off the ground, I clapped my hands to his cheeks and fell into a black abyss. My whole body burned with the power, adding to the trembling caused by Avalanche's power. I shrieked and fell to my knees.

            He jumped on top of me again, but for the moment I had his strength and virtual invulnerability. I felt nothing but a bit of pressure and the pain of absorbing a new power.

            My eyes widened when I saw Kitty's hand phase through the ground beside me and grab my arm. I fell backwards through the ground when she phased me too, feeling each atom of my body slide around the atoms in the ground. This felt strange. It felt like being as light as air and yet being pressed upon inside and out of your body.

            We resurfaced a few feet away. By this time, the pain had faded. "Thanks, Shadowcat," I panted.

            She winked, ponytail bobbing. "It was nothing, CopyCat," she replied.

            I saw Avalanche getting to his feet, aided by Sonar. Avalanche tried to "shake things up" with his power and, when he saw that he couldn't, looked at me with horror. 

I grinned manically and pumped up his power. Lifting my foot, I mentally grabbed onto one of the seismic waves I felt below me. I held my hands out before me and stomped. My eyes rolled into my head and the wave I had grabbed shot at Avalanche and Sonar.

They both managed to dive out of the way. Sonar took what looked to be Chinese throwing stars from his belt and threw them at me. Quickly, I turned on my phasing power. They soared through my body and hit the house behind me.

Seconds later, Evan's spikes flew through me, too. I heard Quicksilver yelp as he was forced back into a fence in pinned there. Switching to receptive mode, I ran over to the pinned mutant and placed my hands on his cheeks. I pitched forward into a navy blue vortex.

As I absorbed his power, the world around me began to slow. My eyes widened in panic and I reeled backwards when everything came to almost a standstill. Agony made me thrash wildly as every part of my body vibrated so fast it was painful.

            The pain faded after what seemed to be an eternity. I quickly got to my feet and, wide-eyed, took in the world around me.

            Kurt was frozen in midair delivering a blow to Toad's chest. Scott's optic blasts were slowly crawling towards a dagger that had been thrown at Jean by Sonar. Quicksilver had burst free from his bonds and was watching with terror as Evan's bone spikes inched through the air at him. Kitty was halfway phased through Blob, whose face was contorted because Rouge's bare hand had taken hold of his arm. Avalanche was not a problem, but was staring blankly down at his hands.

            I ran at normal speed toward the dagger that had been thrown, taking hold of it and rolling away before Cyclops's blasts could hit me. Jean and Scott's facial expressions slowly changed into ones of shock as I ran by them.

            Sonar was too slow to stop me when I ran forward and grabbed his belt. It snapped off easily. I ran back to the place where Scott's optic blasts were and threw the belt in front of it. When I threw it, the belt just sort of hung in the air, which was cool.

            Looking around, I spotted a hose some ways away. I lunged for it, taking it and running toward the Brotherhood. This is when the belt exploded. I rolled to avoid the pointy shards that flew at me, dragging the hose with me.

            It was easy to wrap each member of the Brotherhood up with hose. When that was done, I shut the super speed off. The time at which everything moved returned to normal. I felt a strong wind from the speed I used push my hair back and whip my mask off.

            "You!" gasped Avalanche, "You're the new girl from school!"

            "Who were you expecting?" I demanded, squinting because everything was now blurry, "Larry, Mo, and Curly?"

            Kurt tossed me my mask. I jammed it back on my head so that I could see. Grinning, I said, "Never underestimate a new recruit."

            Toad used his tongue to undo the hose I had tied around them, for I hadn't absorbed his power. In fact, I probably never would. Another one of the Professor's suspicions was that I would take on the physical appearance of any mutant that was visibly different. For instance, that I would grow blue fur if I tried to absorb Kurt's powers.

            Running as fast as they could in the other direction, the Brotherhood hightailed away from us. "You haven't seen the last of us!" shouted Avalanche as they ran.

            I started after them, but Scott put a hand on my shoulder. A shudder ran down my spine and I looked up at Scott with a stupid grin plastered on my face. "Don't," he said, "Just let them go."

            We watched them run away but were interrupted when a man opened the door of the house behind us and yelled, "What are you doing here? What do you want?"

            But by then, the Professor was out of the _Blackbird_ and halfway across the lawn. "Don't worry, Mr. Timere," he called, "We are only here to offer your daughters a chance to enter my school, the Xavier Institute."

            Mr. Timere didn't open the door any further, but narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

            "Because I know about the strange things that are happening to your daughters."

            "You can't."

            "And yet, I do. You have seen my students in action. We are like your daughters, Mr. Timere. Please let us explain."

            "C'mon, Melody," Kurt hissed in my ear, "We aren't needed here anymore."

            I looked to the Professor for confirmation. He nodded. I grabbed his gloved hand in mine and only had the time to see the surprise on Mr. Timere's face when we 'ported into the _Blackbird_.

            "Is it always that exciting?" I asked after I had seated myself.

            He shrugged. "It depends."

            "On what?"

            "Who is there," he replied, winking, "And, tonight, it was very interesting."

            I smiled to myself and leaned back on my seat. If this was the everyday life of an X-Men, it was definitely going to be _much_ more exciting than my other one!

**A/N: Tur duuur! Hope you liked that. Oh, and to answer you Qindarka, there _is_ an X-Man called Copycat, but she's an Irish girl that can copy any mutation that she _sees _or _remembers_. My CopyCat copies people who she's absorbed. And that besides, I'm going to be changing her codename at the end of this fic. Don't bother asking what it is. I won't tell you.**

**Stay tuned for, "Chapter 6: A Cry in the Night"!**


	6. A Cry in the Night

Chapter 6 A Cry in the Night 

            The girls' names, I found out later, were Shauna and Hannah Timere. Shauna was the younger of the two and had the coolest power I had seen yet: invisibility. She could go invisible at will and do so with anyone or anything she touched. The Professor codenamed her Phantom.

            I must add that Hannah's powers were nifty, too. She had a variety of them, but they all concerned her eyes. She had X-ray vision, could see in the dark, see metal objects through any solid obstacle, see Shauna when she was invisible, and could even see whether or not someone was telling the truth. She codenamed herself Translucence.

            The two were sisters but they looked completely different. Hannah was tall and well muscled, with flowing black hair and flashing brown eyes. Her face was heart-shaped with a large nose and firm mouth. With a complexion like ivory, she looked almost like a specter.

            Shauna, however, was short and petite. Her hair was the color of straw and was twice as long, but always pulled back into a low ponytail. Gray eyes that looked as if they could pierce stone glinted in low-set forehead. Her nose was small and her mouth soft in her angular face. She looked as if she tanned easily.

            I didn't like either of them. Though I had treated them warmly enough when they had come to the Institute, they had given me the cold shoulder. Shauna and I shared a room and she always ignored me, yet she always went through my stuff and used it.

            It was a well-known fact that I disliked them both. My patience only went so far, and it wasn't even that long. They both hadn't let me absorb their powers until the Professor had coaxed them into consenting.

            "Oooh!" I gasped when I saw Shauna flipping through her CD collection, "You have the new Linkin Park CD!"

            "So?" she asked coldly.

            I flounced over to her. "Can I borrow it? I love two of their songs on it, but I don't have enough money to buy it."

            "No."

            Annoyance stabbed at me. "Why not?"

            No answer.

            "Jerk," I muttered, flopping down on my bed.

            Gray eyes flashed. "What did you just called me?"

            My temper reared its ugly head. "I just called you a jerk. Want to do something about it? I mean, it's not like I'm lying or anything."

            She winked out of existence, going invisible in only moments. My heart jumped into my throat. I couldn't see her anywhere. From the look in her eyes, she was ready to kill me. I pumped up my fire and let my hands burn with it. Falling into a defensive stance, I looked warily around me.

            Something hit me in the back of the head and, seconds later, hit my gut. Then it hit me across my face, causing blood to spurt of my nose. I lashed out with my burning hands and caught her arm. She screamed in agony and popped back into visibility. The acrid smell of burning flesh filled my nostrils.

            I let go. She stared in numb horror at the burns on her arms, her shrill rising in pitch and volume.

            Scott was the first at the door. He looked from Shauna's burned arms to my flaming hands. "What did you do?"

            I turned off the fire and pinched my nose. "She started hitting me!" I accused.

            "She called me a jerk!" howled Shauna.

            By this time, Kurt had 'ported into the room. He saw the burns on her arms and immediately 'ported her to the infirmary.

            Scott's face was red going on purple. "You _know_ you're not supposed to use your powers on another student!"

            "Tell that to Shauna," I retorted in a nasal voice, crush forgotten, "She went invisible and started hitting me. I couldn't see her and my hand grabbed her arm. It was in self-defense!"

            "_Melody_!" The Professor's voice rang through my mind. "_To the infirmary_!"

            I made a face and pumped up my phasing ability, sinking through the floor. I fell a few floors and eventually landed in the corridor leading to the infirmary. Scowling, I plodded into the room. 

            The Professor was livid. Kurt courteously averted his eyes.

            "What were you thinking?" Professor X demanded.

            "'What was I thinking'?" I repeated, cheeks flushing in anger, "I was thinking she'd have killed me if I hadn't acted!"

            Shauna lie on the bed I had occupied only a week ago. Her gray eyes were filled with tears and her arms were bandaged. She gave me a watery glare.

            "Explain."

            "I asked Shauna if I could borrow one of her CDs and she said no. When I asked her why, she didn't answer me so I called her a jerk. Then she went invisible and started to hit me. You should have seen the look in her eyes! She would have killed me! I fired myself up and grabbed her arm which, by the way, _I couldn't see_."

            "Lair!" Shauna shrieked.

            "Stop!" the Professor roared.

            We both fell silent.

            "There is one way to resolve this," he said, "Shauna, lean forward. I'm going to read your mind."

            Her eyes bulged with—what? Horror? Fear? Anger? I didn't know.

            The Professor held her head in her hands and closed his eyes. As he read her mind, his expression was grim. Finally, he sat back and furrowed his brow at Shauna.

            "It would seem, Melody, that you are telling the truth. I will now deal with Shauna as I see fit. Kurt, Melody, leave."

            Kurt took me by the arm and quickly 'ported.

            When we were safely back in my room, he demanded, "What was that?"

            I sniffed and wiped the trail of blood from my upper lip. "She tried to kill me. If I hadn't done _something_, she seriously would have killed me. You should have _seen_ the look in her eyes. It was like insulting her was way over the top."

            He gripped my wrist so tightly it cut off my circulation. "Be _careful_. If she tried it once…"

            "When am I ever not careful?" I asked, gently prying his fingers off.

            He gave me a very significant look, eyes narrowed and tail twitching.

            I grinned sweetly, but really I was touched. I hadn't known anyone cared that much for me.

            Just then, Scott peered inside again. "What happened?" he asked, sunglasses glinting.

            My knees went weak. I just stood there and grinned sappily at him, looking quite like an idiot.

            "It wasn't her fault," Kurt explained for me, "Shauna attacked her. Melody burned her in self-defense."

            "Oh," Scott said, visibly relaxing. "Good."

            He withdrew his head.

            Kurt turned back to me. "Promise me you'll be more careful than you usually are," he said, giving me puppy-dog eyes.

            "Not puppy-dog eyes!" I cried in mock horror, throwing my arms in front of my face.

            "I'm _serious_," he said in a deadly tone.

            I cleared my face of all humor. "Fine. I will."

            "Do you mean it?"

            "Yes."

            He eyed me up, head cocked to one side. Reluctantly, he released my wrist. I rubbed it.

            "I just don't want you to get hurt," he said with a sigh.

            I nodded. "I know."

            "Good," he said.

            And, with a loud _bamf_, he was gone.

~*~

            "Whoa! Cool!" cried Ashleigh, "A Sadie Hawkins dance!"

            She and I had become close friends over the past two weeks. All the classes we had we had together. We sat together at lunch, sometimes joined by Kurt or Kitty. We were in the same after school activities.

            Life was good.

            I examined the poster that hung in the corridor. We had never had a Sadie Hawkins dance over at Albright's, so this would be a totally new experience for me. I was all ready starting to plan how to ask Scott to go with me.

            "Who are _you_ asking?" I asked her.

            She thought on this. "Arcade," she said unblushingly.

            "Arcade? _Tawk_? Kitty's friend?" I demanded.

            She nodded.

            I laughed. "You two would make the _perfect_ couple!"

            "I know we would," she said with a dreamy smile.

            We walked over to our regular lunch table and sat down. I pulled out my own homemade lunch (I was paranoid of school lunch; who knew what was in the stuff?) and began to eat. My eyes scanned the lunchroom. I caught Arcade as he entered the room and nudged Ashleigh.

            She quickly got to her feet. "Gotta go," she said with a wink, scampering off.

            I continued to eat my lunch and watched with dancing eyes as Ashleigh asked Arcade to go with her. His face flashed a variety of colors before he finally nodded. She hung on his arm and grinned up at him.

            "_Na, und wie_?"

            I jumped and whirled. "Kurt!" I yelped, "Don't _do _that!"

            He slid into the seat next to me. "Sorry."

            "What _does_ that mean?" I asked.

            "What's up," he replied. "Usually, you'd said '_ganz gut_' in reply."

            I glared. "And what does _that_ mean?"

            "Pretty good."

            "_Ganz gut_, then."

            He gave me a toothy smile. "So, where's Ashleigh?" he asked, "Usually you two are inseparable."

            I took a big bite of my sandwich. "She's asking Arcade to the dance," I said through the peanut butter with difficulty, "and, from the looks of it, he's agreed to go with her. I dunno if she'll be coming back. Pity. She's wasting a perfectly good cupcake."

            "Then let's _not_ waste it," he replied, pulling it out of her bag.

            I hit him.

            He sighed and put the cupcake down. "_Fine_," he said with an exaggerated sigh.

            Just as he set it down, Ashleigh and Arcade came walking over. Beaming, she told me, "He's going with me!"

            Arcade's face flushed, but he looked pleased all the same.

            "Who're you going to ask?" Ashleigh asked, snatching her cupcake from in front of Kurt.

            My face turned red and I looked across the cafeteria at Scott. "Um, I don't know."  
            "Oh, _come on_," she retorted, "From the look on your face, it's _totally_ obvious."

            I shrugged again. "So? I may not even ask him."

            "So? We—and I think I speak for all of us—want to know!" she said, leaning forward.

            Kurt and Arcade agreed.

            My blushed deepened in color. "Do you promise not to tell anyone else?" I asked quietly.

            They nodded impatiently.

            "Scott," I whispered.

            Ashleigh squealed and threw one of Arcade's fries at me. "_Scott_!?"

            I sank down into my seat.

            "Well, you'd better ask him before Jean does. And, if _she_ doesn't, Taryn will." Kurt said, cocking a brow.

            "Don't tell anyone," I practically begged.

            Ashleigh put her hand over her heart. "Hope to die, stick a needle in my eye," she quipped, quoting part of the old rhyme. 

            Kurt elbowed me. "Don't worry about it."

            Arcade didn't say anything.

            "_Arcade_?" prodded Ashleigh.

            He squirmed, barely containing a grin. "Fine."

            Someone hollered for Kurt. "Oops," he said, getting up, "Gotta go. See you after school, Melody."

            I nodded. "Buh bye!"

            He swaggered over to the person who had called him. Who was it? I squinted.

            _Shauna_?

            I discreetly pumped up my Healing Factor. My sense of hearing increased by a tenfold. I turned my ear toward them and tried to look nonchalant. Chewing slowly, I listened in on their conversation.

            "Hey, Kurt," said Shauna breathlessly.

            "Oh. Um, hi, Shauna. What do you want?" Kurt asked in reply.

            "Er… well, there's a dance in about two weeks…"

            "Yeah, I know."

            "Well, I was kind of wondering…"

            "What? That I'd ask someone for you?"

            There was a prolonged silence, in which I snorted.

            "No. Um. Well, we haven't known each other for a very long time…"

            "I know. It's been only about five days."

            "So, um, I wanted to ask…"

            "Yeah?"

            "Would you go with me?"

            I dropped my sandwich. Ashleigh and Arcade stared at me. Kurt was quiet for a very, very long time.

            "No."

            Shauna inhaled quickly. "Why?" she asked, sounding on the verge of tears.

            "Well, you _did_ kind of try to kill my best friend."

            "I—but—you—" she spluttered.

            "Sorry," he said and I heard him walk away.

            I turned off Logan's Healing Factor, numb with disbelief. _Shauna_ had asked _Kurt_ to the dance?

            Shaking my head, I turned back to my friends and rejoined the conversation. This could be dealt with later. It wasn't like this was going to have a lasting effect.

            Right?

~*~

            "­_X-Men, to my office_."

            I looked up from my homework when Professor X's voice rang through mind. His voice wasn't urgent, which was a good sign, so I took the time to finish the sentence I was in the middle of writing and jogged to his office.

            Everyone was all ready there when I entered. Shauna glowered at me when I entered, unconsciously rubbing the bandages on her arms. I glowered right back, totally unfazed.

            "Everyone here? Good," the Professor said, wheeling out from behind his desk. "I've called you here to tell you that I will be leaving the Institute for the next two weeks."

            Surprised whispers started up among us. Kurt, who was across the room from me, looked at me with surprise.

            "There have been signs of dangerous mutant activity in the area, and the task I am about to take is fit only for a telepath. I'll be leaving this evening after dinner. That was all. Thank you."

            As I turned to leave, Kurt bounded to my side. I waited for him and we left the room last. He made sure no one was in earshot and hissed, "Melody! Do you know what this means?"

            "What?" I asked, confused.

            He ran a hand through his hair. "This gives Shauna the chance to get revenge on you!"

            "Are you _serious_?" I demanded, "Do you really think she's going to try that again? Look what happened to her last time!"

            "Melody, she's more of a threat than you think she is!"

            "How do _you _know?"

            He clenched and unclenched his fists, frustrated. "I _don't_."

            "There. You've admitted it."

            "Yeah, but she's tried it once. What's going to stop her from doing it again?"

            "Kurt, stop worrying so much. I can take care of myself."

            He gave me a very fish-eyed look. "You're getting cocky. Just because the Professor switched you out of the new recruit's training sessions into mine doesn't mean anything. She could _kill_ you!"

            "I can—oh, hi, Professor!" I began, breaking off when Professor X wheeled out of his office.

            "Hello, yourself," he replied, looking from me to Kurt and back again, "Not fighting, I hope?"

            "No!" Kurt and I yelled at the same time.

            The Professor laughed. "Good," he said, wheeling away.

            When he was around the corner, Kurt gripped my shoulder. "She's dangerous. Trust me. Please?"

            I sagged against the wall and gave him an exaggerated sigh. "Fine."

            Shauna came striding down the corridor. He looked at her and backed up a step. "Trust me," he repeated, and 'ported in my face.

            I coughed and waved away the smoke his 'porting caused. "I _really_ wish he wouldn't do that…" I muttered, and trotted down the corridor to my room.

~*~

            I ran. The air I took into my lungs was so cold that it felt like fire. My leg muscles burned with strain. They screamed to stop, but I knew I couldn't.

            A flash of red narrowly missed my ear and tore the ground in front of me. I screamed and careened wildly away from it. My knees buckled and I went down, rolling down a steep hill. Rocks cut into my arms and legs, splitting my skin and causing me to bleed.

            I looked up the hill and my insides froze with terror. Taking a deep breath and closing my eyes, I turned on my phasing power and sank into the ground.

            Above me, I clearly heard Scott say, "Where did she go?"

            "I don't know. I couldn't see her," replied Kurt's voice irritably.

            My strength was slowly sapping away. I could feel it sliding through my fingers like water in cupped hands. I couldn't phase forever…

            "Here, CopyKitty! Here, kitty, kitty!" called Evan.

            "Stop being stupid, Evan," Rogue snapped, "You'll only let her know where we are."

            I slid under the ground so that I'd come up behind them. There was nowhere to hide, but I could run.

            Slowly, I came up about ten feet behind them. A solitary tear slid down my cheek. I wiped it away, frustrated, and slowly crept away. Maybe—just maybe—they wouldn't turn around…

            No such luck.

            I heard the lens of Scott's visor go up before the optic blasts lashed out at me. With a grunt, I hit the ground a few feet away and rolled. The beams followed me. I struggled to my feet and surged forward.

            Several of Evan's bone spikes missed me narrowly. I threw my arms up to protect my head, but continued with my sprinting pace.

            _BAMF_!

            I threw myself forward when I heard the sound of Kurt 'porting. Seconds later, he appeared where I had been moments before. He saw me and lunged, feet aiming for my head.

            I ducked, but (alas!) I wasn't fast enough. He delivered a powerful blow to my chest, winding me. I curled around the injury, tears springing to my eyes.

            "Don't!" I screeched when he kicked me again.

            "Why?" he asked coldly, "After you did that to us?"

            "What'd I do?" I shrieked after another blow.

            He pulled back his fist, saying, "You know what you did!"

            His fist caught my jaw. I groaned and skittered backwards, coming up hard against a boulder. I pressed myself against it and tried to stand, aching all over and panting.

            Closing my eyes, I tried to phase through the boulder. To my complete horror, I found I couldn't. I tried it again.

            Nothing happened.

            "You'll never betray us again," said Evan, approaching and sprouting a long bone spike on his arm. He drew his arm back and launched it at me. It struck me in the stomach and completely pierced my abdomen.

            I gagged and clutched it, numb with disbelief. All the pain I had felt before was gone. Black spots invaded my vision. Blood seeped down over my fingers.

            And began to scream.

            "_NOOOOOO_!"

            I gave one wild thrash and flopped out of bed, landing hard on the floor. My blankets were tangled around me. Not only that, but I was drenched in a cold sweat. My scream still resounded in my ears.

            No. Wait a moment…

            That wasn't _my_ scream!

            Immediately, I was on my feet. The person screaming was recognizably Kitty. Though I was dazed and somewhat confused, I pumped up Quicksilver's super speed.

            This was hard to do. I had almost no energy left from the training session I had had earlier. I was now officially running on the last of my power… and it probably wouldn't be taking me that far.

            I was out the door in a flash. Glancing over my shoulder, I could see other startled X-Men emerging from their rooms. There was no time to stop, however. I sprinted down the corridor and stopped in the doorway, where I saw Kitty…

            And the knife that was slowly falling at her chest.

            I was across the room in a second, but I could feel my super speed faltering. The world was resuming its natural pace. Panicking, I reached out and grabbed the knife.

My fingers enclosed around the blade of the knife, slashing my palm wide open. I grimaced in pain and drew my hand back. Blood spilled from my hand and hung, suspended, in midair. I shut the super speed down.

            Kitty shrieked when my blood splattered on her pajamas. I dropped the knife as if it were diseased, staring in horror.

            _BAMF_!

            "_Was passieren_? _Was gehen auf_?" demanded Kurt in German and froze, staring at the knife on the floor and the blood all over Kitty and me. (**A/N: Did I do the German right? I'm new to this stuff…**)

            Scott, Rouge, Evan, Bobby, and Amara crowded at the doorway. Scott finally fought his way through and demanded, "What's going on?"

            "_Ja_," agreed Kurt, his accent heavier than usual, "_Vhat's going on_?"

            "Someone tried to kill me!" shrilled Kitty, "I woke up because I, like, heard a noise and then there was—there was, like, a knife floating over me! The next thing I knew it was, like, falling at me. Then Melody, like, came in using her super speed and, like, caught the knife before it, like, got me!"

            I couldn't help the way I stared. That was _a lot_ of "likes". I knew she said "like" a lot, but I guess it got worse when she was thoroughly startled.

            My palm throbbed and I gave a dry sob. The pain was excruciating. I could tell at a glance how deep it was. It would cripple me if I didn't get medical attention soon. The knife had cut the tendon.

            Suddenly, Logan exploded into the room. "What's going on?" he demanded, and balled his hands into fists. Blades the size of my forearms popped out of his knuckles. I shrieked and jumped back, as I had never seen him do this before.

            "Someone tried to, like, kill me!" Kitty said, blinking up at him with wide, blue eyes.

            He eyed the blood all over the floor. "Are you okay, half-pint? Where'd all the blood come from?"

            "Me," I all but wailed. "I was stupid enough to grab the blade!"

            "Then heal it," he retorted, "You have the Healing Factor."

            "_I'm spent_!" I howled, my hand convulsing. This decked me with a fresh bout of agony. I felt like I was going to lose my dinner.

            He took my hand in his rough ones and forced my palm open. I shrieked and tried to grab my hand back, but his grip was unrelenting. "This is serious," he rumbled, "Elf, take her to the infirmary."

            "On it, Logan," Kurt replied, taking my shoulder and 'porting.

            When we reappeared in the infirmary, I turned to him and wailed, "You were right! I _should_ be more careful."

**A/N: Dun, dun, duuuuun! The plot thickens! Sorry that went a little fast. I'm eager to get into the good stuff. Plus, this was getting a little long, so I had to split it into two chapters. The murder thing was gonna go for this one chapter. Aaah, well, you'll stick around to read my next one.**

**Stay tuned for, "Chapter 7: Murder's Music"!**


	7. Murder's Music

Chapter 7 Murder's Music 

            "Why would I want to kill Kitty?" I demanded, wiping at my eyes with my good hand.

            Kurt continued to bandage my wounded one. Bobby had numbed it somewhat with his ice, but it still hurt like hell. My eyes were filled with unshed tears, distorting the world around me.

            I gave Logan a very watery glare.

            "I'm not saying you did, squirt," he retorted, "but we need to find out who it was."

            "Well, I didn't do it and I didn't see who did," I said, sniffing, "All I saw was the knife falling at her chest. It would have killed her if I hadn't done something."

            "Kitty said the knife was floating…" added Kurt helpfully, pulling the bandage tight. I choked on a protest, instead making an odd, high-pitched noise in my throat.

            "Then that would mean it was done by a telekinetic or someone who could use magnetism or…" Logan said, trailing off.

            "Or someone who could become invisible," I added for him.

            "Then we have four suspects," he continued, "Magneto—"

            Kurt snorted. "Why would he try to kill Kitty? She poses no obvious threat to him."

            Logan glared at him. "No comments from the peanut gallery, elf."

            Kurt grinned widely and busied himself with the bandage again.

            "Shauna is another suspect, and possibly Jean (though I don't see _why_ she'd want to kill Kitty; haven't they been friends for quite some time?)," I piped up, "But I don't know who the fourth one is."

            "You," Logan growled softly.

            My heart jumped into my throat. "_Me_?" I cried, wrenching my hand away from Kurt's. He pulled it back and finished it.

            Kurt and I just _looked_ at each other. This was all I needed.

            "Melody," called Jean, running into the room, "Did you see anyone when you caught that knife?"

            Now _this_ was going to become bothersome.

            "Again, no," I repeated.

            "Red, can you go into anyone's mind to find out who did this?" rumbled Logan.

            Jean's face went as red as her hair. "No."

            "And why not?"

            "Because… the last time I tried, I mentally damaged the person," she blurted.

            "NO WAY ARE _YOU_ GOING IN _MY_ MIND!" I exploded. I paused, then added, "But you can go into Shauna's. She's messed up enough as it is."

            "You have it in for the pixie, don't you?" Logan asked.

            I stared. "The pixie?"

            "Shauna," he corrected.

            "Do you know when Ororo is getting home?" Jean asked suddenly.

            "She's due back from Africa in a few days," grunted Logan, "Why?"

            She shrugged. "I'm just wondering."

            "Ororo?" I asked.

            "Another teacher," Kurt explained, "She can control the weather, and she's Evan's aunt. We call her Storm."

            I yawned.

            Logan saw this. "Alright, everyone! Bed! _Now_! You have school in the morning!"  
            And then I was left alone in the infirmary. "_This_ is going to be fun…" I muttered as the lights dimmed. I pulled the blankets up about my shoulders and drifted off to sleep before I could think another thought.

~*~

            "What happened to your hand?" asked Ashleigh.

            I was at school and extremely crotchety. My hand stung and I hadn't the power to heal it… yet. I scowled at her. "For the fifth time, I dropped a knife and caught it by the blade before I could think twice."

            "Whatever you say," she replied lightly.

            I busied myself with my locker combination. This was awkward: usually, I did this with my left hand. I had grabbed the blade with my left hand. I wrote with my left hand.

            This posed a lot of problems.

            That morning, I had wakened to find the bandage completely soaked through. I was losing a lot of blood. Fortunately, it had stopped bleeding for the moment.

            "How'd that happen?" asked a new, snickering voice. "Did you mishandle your toothbrush this morning?"

            My head snapped back. Shauna stood above me, leering. Anger boiled up inside me.

            "Actually, it was the knife you dropped at Kitty," I said heatedly.

            Her eyebrows shot up. "The knife _I_ dropped?"

            "You know you did it," I growled. "Admit it."

            "Even if I _did_ do it, I wouldn't tell you."

            I slowly got to my feet. My hands balled into fists. "You wanna start something? Here? Now? 'Cause I'll be _happy_ to oblige."

            Without bothering to reply, she leapt at me.

            I hit the floor and slid along the tiled corridor. People nearby stopped to watch. She drew back her fist and swung a nice punch to my jaw.

            There was no was I was going to stand for _this_!

            With a grunt, I rolled so that I was on top of her. My fist connected solidly to her face. She shrieked and clutched her now-bleeding nose. 

I snorted in disgust. So she couldn't even take a punch!

            Something hard and solid hit my gut. I grunted and rolled off her to see what had happened. She had snagged a book from the floor beside me and jammed it into my stomach.

            "_Girl fight_!"

            I ignored the shout. All concentration was focused on Shauna.

            Another punch landed against my cheekbone. I lashed out with my foot and caught the side of her head. She yelped as her whole body was jerked backward.

            I lunged at her. We were suddenly rolling again. My back slammed against a row of lockers, knocking the air from my lungs. I lay winded for a moment, fighting to breath.

            My nose seared with pain and I heard an audible _crack_! I howled, knowing immediately that it had broken.

            She was standing now. I swung my legs so that she fell to the ground with a yelp. I sat on top of her and pinned her arms to the ground with my knees, throwing sturdy punches to her face.

            "Melody!"

            "Miss Becker!"

            "_Shauna_!"

            Someone was suddenly pulling me away. I almost couldn't see who it was for the pain. My whole head throbbed. I tried to jerk away from the person who held me back.

            "Miss Becker," said a voice in my ear.

            My insides froze. Slowly, I turned my head to find myself face-to-face with Principal Kelly.

            "You and you," he said to Shauna and me, "to my office. Now."

            I wrenched my arm from his grip and stalked angrily to his office. Behind me, I heard Shauna whimpering. I glanced over my shoulder. Her eyes were watering. Blood oozed out of her nose. Two bruises were rising nicely about her eyes.

            When I got to his office, I threw myself indolently into a chair. Shauna, sniffling, took another.

            "What did you two think you were _doing_?" demanded Principal Kelly.

            "She started it!" both Shauna and I yelled at the same time, pointing accusingly at each other.

            "Melody, you first."

            "She started it," I said. "We got into a… er… _heated_ conversation, and she _threw_ herself at me!"

            "You provoked me! You asked me if I wanted to fight!" shrieked Shauna.

            "That doesn't mean you _should_!" I yelled back.

            "Be _quiet_!" thundered Principal Kelly. "Detention! Both of you! For _two months_! And I don't want to hear it, Miss Becker! Miss Timere!"

            Scowling, we both fell silent.

            "Miss Becker, I suggest you go get your nose looked at. It looks broken."

            "It's _fine_," I muttered. I would heal it later… and with Shauna's energy, if it went the way I planned.

             I stomped off to lunch. Ashleigh had a table and was reserving a seat for me. Kurt was there, too. He paced in front of it, hands behind his back. His head snapped up when I stormed over to them.

            He grabbed me by the shoulders, three-fingered hands digging into my arms. I squirmed. "What did you think you were _doing_?" he demanded.

            "Doing what I wanted to do since two weeks ago," I said, shrugging him off and taking my seat.

            "Didn't know you could fight like that," Ashleigh said through her sandwich.

            I cracked my knuckles. "You've seen _nothing_ yet."

            She leaned forward. "I'd like to see."

            I rolled my eyes. "Not after _that_."

            "Not _ever_," interjected Kurt, scowling.

            When he turned around, I stuck my tongue out at him.

            Ashleigh giggled.

            Kurt, who hadn't noticed, ran a hand through his hair. "Let's just hope it doesn't come back to bite you."

            I crossed my fingers and held them up to show him. "Here's to hoping."

            "It's going to come back to bite you," he said with conviction.

~*~

            _Crrrk_. _Crrrk_.

            My eyes snapped open. The sound of creaking floorboards filled my ears. I was suddenly very aware that someone was in the room. It echoed off the walls. I couldn't tell where it was coming from, but I knew that it was steadily coming closer…

            My heart began to pound in my ears. It could be the murderer, a.k.a. Shauna. But if I moved too suddenly, she might realize I was awake and get away before I could see her…

            The sound stopped. I gripped the blankets tightly in my fists (both, since I had thankfully been able to heal both hand and broken nose, though the gash had left a wide scar). Sweat stood out on my forehead. Had she seen me?

            That was when I heard something whistling through the air.

            I shrieked and rolled off the bed. I hit the floor with an audible thump and looked with horror at the bed. A knife lay embedded in my mattress. My voice rose high and shrill in the night air.

            "Melody, stop your shrieking and go back to sleep," yelled Shauna, who was standing across the room beside her own bed. Her face was twisted with anger.

            _BAMF_!

            "Melody! Melody! What's wrong!" demanded Kurt, looking about him. He balked when he saw the knife in the bed.

            Logan, Scott, and Kitty crowded at the doorway. Logan eventually burst through, for he popped his claws. He paused in the middle of the room, sniffing. Then he saw the knife in the bed and narrowed his eyes.

            "Again?" he rumbled.

            I nodded, white and shaking. It had been a near thing. A second later and I would have been dead.

            Kurt helped me to my feet. I rubbed my arms and looked down at the bed. 

            Kitty stood frozen in the doorway, eyes as round as plates. "It happened again… it, like, happened again…"

            "EVERYONE OUT!" Logan roared. Kurt instantly teleported, Scott hightailed it out of the room, and Kitty phased through the wall. I made for it, too, but he stopped me. "Not you, squirt. You're to go back to sleep."

            "But what if—"

            "It won't happen again, as _I _am going to be standing guard outside the door." He pulled the knife from the bed. "Be assured it won't."

            I nodded and, shivering, got into bed. He stalked out the door and stood there, on guard.

            I never did fall asleep again that night.

~*~

            "You know, it _could_ have been her. Faking it, I mean."

            I froze on my way to the kitchen and pressed myself against the wall. Using X-ray vision (yeah, I know, sounds cheesy, right?), I glanced through the wall and saw four people standing near the kitchen door: Jean, Amara, Rouge, and Kitty. Jean had been the one who had first spoken.

            "She wouldn't, like, do that!" said Kitty indignantly.

            "She _is_ new…" muttered Amara.

            "And so were you," Kitty interjected. "It doesn't, like, mean she did it. You should have, like, seen the look on her face. She was, like, terrified."

            Rouge scoffed. "_CopyCat_? Terrified. I doubt it."

            "She _was_," Kitty said angrily.

            I _really_ liked her just then.

            "It's a little suspicious. I mean, she was the first one there when _you_ were almost murdered. She was there before you could see who had dropped it. And then she was able to roll off her bed before it hit her. She was faking it," Jean said, sounding very self-righteous.

            My hands curled into fists. I suppressed my anger, which could wait… for now.

            "No! She, like, wasn't!" Kitty, of course.

            "It probably was. Shauna seems sweet to me. I saw the fight in the hall. Melody provoked her into fighting."

            Okay. This was going far enough.

            I stepped around the corner. My cheeks burned red. I was almost sick because of my fury. I was _shaking_ with rage.

            "Shauna is _very_ sweet," I said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "People that try to kill you as are sweet as sugar."

            Jean looked at me in shock and disbelief. "What? You saw her?"

            "No. I mean the first time she did. When I burned her arms."

            Jean rolled her eyes. "You probably provoked her then, too."

            Okay, so I let my anger get the better of me. So sue me.

            I lunged. Jean stood in utter incredulity. I hit her and we rolled back. I did the same thing to her as I had to Shauna: I sat on her and pinned her arms down with my knees. "Say that I'm the murderer again and I swear I'll knock you out," I growled.

            Then, "_WHOA_!"

            I flew back into the wall. Some invisible force pressed me against the wall with my windpipe. I gagged. I couldn't breathe!

            "Jean, are you alright?" asked a voice from very near me.

            Shauna popped into existence, her hand positioned strategically at my throat. The girl was a stick but she had one heck of a grip!

            Jean sat up and rubbed her arms. "Yeah, yeah," she said breathlessly, glaring at me, "I'm fine. But no thanks to _her_."

            A gray void obscured my sight. My ears roared, but I could hear a shrill keening noise escape my throat. I thrashed frantically.

            The grip released. I slid down the wall to my knees, breathing raggedly. Massaging my throat, I glared at Shauna. The pompous little jerk…

            But then I saw the masks of rage on Rouge, Jean, and Amara's faces. Kitty shot me a frantic look. Shauna looked very smug.

            I groaned.

            This was probably going to come back to bite me, too.

~*~

            I thrashed wildly and yelped. My blankets tangled about me, but the shrill cry that had wakened me never wavered.

            My super speed was up in a flash. I leapt up from my nest without bothering to look at Shauna's bed and ran. The sound was coming from Jean's room.

            When I reached the room, I found the knife only centimeters above Jean's chest and lessening. I darted across the room and dove for the knife. My fingers enclosed around the handle and I did a somersault through the air (totally cool), rolling across the floor and hitting the wall with my back (not cool).

            I shut my super speed off. Jean was still shrieking. Her frantic green eyes found me and she stopped abruptly. "You tried to kill me," she said in a hushed voice.

            "I did not," I said, getting to my feet and dropping the knife as if it were diseased. "I just saved your life!"

            "This looks very suspicious, Becker," said a new voice in the doorway, "_Very_ suspicious.

            The voice was unmistakable. Shauna stood in the doorway, a smirk on her smug little face. Right then, I wanted to punch it in, but I restrained myself.

            "She's right, squirt," said Logan, who had reached the doorway. I flinched. "It looks very suspicious."

            I was right…

            It _had_ come back to bite me.

~*~

            The next night was as nerve-wracking as the last. Rogue was nearly murdered that night, but I had put on a spurt of super speed and saved her life.

            Did I get gratitude? Groveling?

            Nope.

            _I_ was accused of trying to kill her. _Again_. But no one had any proof that I had, so I was safe for the moment. The only people who believed me were Kurt and Kitty. Everyone else suddenly hated me.

            Again I was being shunned.

            I hate my life.

            Thankfully, tonight was Friday. It was around eleven o'clock and I was on the phone with Ashleigh in my room. Shauna was gone. The last time I had seen her was in the kitchen. Hopefully, she would stay there.

            It was a dark and stormy night… yeah, yeah, a little cliché. But it was. Rain lashed at the windows. Lighting flashed. Thunder boomed. 

            "Are you serious, Melody?" demanded Ashleigh. "There have been _murder_ attempts?"

            "No," I said, leaning back against the wall. "And everyone thinks it was _me_."

            "No way. You would _never_ do that. I mean, yeah, you have a temper, but…"

            "Tell me about it."

            "I am."

            I laughed. Good old Ashleigh.

            "Hey! I forgot to tell you! My parents are out for a week. You can crash at my place whenever you want."

            "Cool!" I said. "Can't wait to—"

            My heart nearly stopped when a scream split the air. Ashleigh gasped on the other line. "What's going on?"

            But I wasn't there to hear it.

            I was already at Hannah's room, which was next to mine. When I was there, I found a terrifying sight.

            Shauna stood over Hannah. A knife was clutched in Shauna's trembling white hand. The knife was… was…

            I turned on heel and became violently sick. Shauna disappeared. I felt her brush past me.

            Clutching my stomach, I turned back to Hannah. Her eyes were wide and glassy. She wasn't breathing. And her heart wasn't beating.

            How did I know this?

            There was a knife through her chest.

            I stumbled over to the corpse and looked down, unable to speak. Gulping, I wrapped my hand around the handle to pull it out again, as a sign of respect.

            "OH MY GOD!"

            Let us say one thing: my timing is horrible, horrible, _horrible_.

            Jean stood in the doorway with her hands clapped over her mouth. I hastily removed my hand from the knife. "This isn't what it looks like," I croaked.

            "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! SHE KILLED HANNAH!"

            I groaned.

            Logan came running. When he saw me, the corpse, and the knife, he popped his claws. "Get out of her, murderer!" he growled, throwing himself at me.

            I shrieked and phased through him. Thunder sounded. Instantly, I was through the wall.

            Logan is named Wolverine for very good reason. He chased me down the corridors with a destructive rage. Tears streaked down my face in terror.

            In what seemed like an eon, I had phased through the door, but I kept on running. Logan through the door open and yelled at my retreating back, "You'd better not come back, or I'll get you that time… you can't phase forever!"

            And with that, he stormed back into the house.

            I stopped just outside the gates. The rain had soaked me through within minutes. I gripped the wet bars in my hands and put my face against them. Tears mingled with the rain.

            The Xavier Institute had been my first real home.

            And I had been kicked out of there, too.

            Turing, I ran down the dark, rainy road and into the shadows.

**A/N: Yes! I finished! But… it's the nicest day of the year. It's eighty degrees out for cripe's sake. WHAT AM I DOING INSIDE? Oh. Yeah. I've been stuck in here all day… ::mumble mumble::**

**But anyway, hope you liked it. ::grins:: And everything falls into place. First, sorry this took so long. Second, I'm sorry the Jean-almost-getting-murdered part was wicked short.  I had to explain everything else that happened before I got too tired.**

**Excuses: School. The research paper I had (which I aced, by the way). My homework. Literary Society (book club, for all those who can't tell). My original fiction (now 156 pages long. Whoot!). I'll try to get the next chapter up more quickly!!**

**And speaking of my next chapter… Stick around for, "Chapter Eight: The Bayville Sirens"!!**


	8. The Bayville Sirens

Chapter 8 The Bayville Sirens 

"Ashleigh! Ashleigh! Open up!"

I pounded on the door. The wind howled down the street and I shivered, wrapping my arms around myself. My hair, soaked through and straggly, clung to my face and neck. It continued to rain unrelentingly.

"_Ashleigh_!"

The door swung open. Ashleigh appeared in the doorway, hands on her hips and glaring. "_What _is the big idea?"

My only reply was the chattering of my teeth.

"Oh my God!" she yelped, grabbing my arm and pulling me inside. She slammed the door behind me.

I stood shivering on the doormat. It was mid-April, which meant that it was about only forty degrees outside. I could feel the beginnings of a cold setting in and promptly pumped up my Healing Factor.

She dashed out of the room, grabbed me a towel, and ran back, shoving it into my arms. "Tell. Now."

"Hannah was murdered," I said, very quietly.

Ashleigh stared at me, her eyes bugging out of her head. "_What_?"

"Shauna killed Hannah. I saw it. You heard the scream. I ran to see what had happened and Shauna stood over Hannah with a knife in her chest. When she saw me, she bolted. I was caught in the room. _Alone_. And they thought I killed her. They kicked me out."

I dried my face on the towel, thankful that it hid my foolish tears.

Funny, I mused. I hadn't cried when I was kicked out of my other home.

"How—could—they—think—you—?" she spluttered. "I was on the phone with you when it happened! You were _talking_ with me! There was no way you could have done it!"

"Which is _exactly_ why I came here," I said, toweling my hair dry.

She led me into the den and shoved me down on the couch. Turning, she ran upstairs and came stomping back down with an armful of clothes.

She shoved them on me, as she had the towel. "Here. You can get changed into these. You'll catch a cold if you stay in those wet clothes!" She waved her hand toward the bathroom.

I nodded my thanks and trotted inside, sliding quickly out of my soaked clothes and into the ones she had brought me. They were a couple sizes too big, as she was taller than me. I rolled up the cuffs. Thankfully, the waist size was just right.

When I came back out, she pointed up the stairs. "Go to bed. Now. There's a guestroom. First room on the left. Sleep."

I nodded, ducking my head to hide my grin. Jogging, I trotted up the steps and went into the guestroom. I fell on the bed and was asleep the moment my eyelids met.

"Good _afternoon_, sunshine!"

My sleeping mind was instantly confused. Where was I? Though my eyes were closed, I could tell this was definitely not my bed. And Ashleigh didn't live at the Institute…

There was a sudden explosion of light behind my closed eyelids. I moaned and rolled over, shielding my face with my hands.

"Oh, come _on_, Melody," Ashleigh said, shaking me roughly by the shoulder. "It's noon!"

I opened my eyelids a hair and glared at her. She had failed to tell me she was a morning person.

That's when everything that had happened last night came rushing back.

I groaned loudly and pressed my palms against my eyes. "Tell me that I had a nightmare and sleepwalked over here."

"Can't tell a lie," she replied grimly. "It happened. On lighter note, I made lunch. A la grilled cheese."

"Sounds delicious," I croaked. I threw back the covers and yawned. Ashleigh shoved my glasses on me, which I took and placed lightly on the bridge of my nose.

As I got to my feet and stretched, she said, "And you had a visitor."  
I paused in mid-yawn. "Who?"

"That Kurt kid. And I found him in the bushes behind my house. It sounds like he let off a firecracker back there or something."

"What'd he say?"

"Something about believing you. In fact, he's the one who picked up the phone after you left. When I told him we had been talking only seconds before, he said bye and hung up on me."

"It was _Kurt_ on the phone, right? You're _sure_ it was Kurt?"

Ashleigh's eyebrows lifted. "Heavy German accent? Squeaky yet masculine voice? Yeah. It was definitely him."

I rubbed my forehead. Then, "What about those sandwiches?"

I found myself down in the kitchen after taking a quick shower. All was silent in the kitchen but for the ticking of the clock on the wall as we ate. The storm from the night previous had blown itself out, though clouds continued to mask the sky.

Ashleigh examined the newspaper, which lay spread on the table before her. Her jaw worked slowly as she read it and, swallowing, said, "There's nothing here about the murder. They must have hushed it all up."

I nodded. I had expected this…

Someone knocked on the door. I went rigid in my seat. Had Wolverine come to take me away? Was Scott going to try to kill me with his optic blasts?

Ashleigh got out of her chair. The chair screeched loudly against the tiles. She gave me a sideways glance and went to the door.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, listening as the door swung open. "Hello?"

Silence.

The door shut and she came padding back. "Weird. No one was there."

This I didn't believe. I pumped up Hannah's power. My eyes dilated and I quickly took in the room. If Shauna had been in the room—or, indeed, anywhere in the house—I would have been able to see her.

I exhaled and busied myself with my lunch again.

"Have I mentioned that I am eternally grateful to you?" I asked as I threw out my plate and wiped grease from my fingers with a paper towel.

"Not yet," Ashleigh said after a thoughtful pause, "But I'm glad to hear it."

I grinned. At least _she_ hadn't turned on me.

"Would you mind making your bed?" she asked.

My eyebrows lifted. "Why? I mean, it's not as if your parents are around to tell you to…"

"Because I'm a neat freak. Go and make it before I have a spazz attack."

This was news to me. "Really?"

She looked into my eyes and said, "Yes."

I sighed and threw my hands up in defeat. "_Fine_," I said, turning and jogging up the stairs.

When I got into the guestroom, I closed the door quietly behind me. I closed my eyes and brought my telepathy to the fore of my mind. Now if I could just contact Kurt…

Pain seared across the side of my head. I gasped and reeled, tripping over the bed and landing on it. Fireworks exploded in my eyes. Blinking furiously, I tried to focus.

There was no one in the room.

But then, appearances could be deceiving.

Someone grabbed hold of my leg and dragged me off the bed. I hit the ground hard, with a loud _thud_. Lashing out with my free leg, I hit something soft and living with my foot.

There was a gasp. My foot was released. I was instantly on my feet.

"Melody?" Ashleigh called up the stairs. "What's going on? It's not _that_ hard to make your bed!"

I hesitated, glancing at the door.

That was enough.

I shrieked and careened into the wall as someone grabbed hold of my hair and _pulled_. Furious, I turned and held my palms out before me. My brow furrowed in concentration.

Shauna—for no one else had a brain waved pattern that demented—flew backwards and slammed into the wall. The door banged open across the room. I took no notice of it and concentrated harder.

She gasped. The wall suddenly had a Shauna-shaped impression in it. Staggering drunkenly, I made my way over to her and pressed harder.

Gagging, Shauna appeared. She grabbed at her constricting throat.

"_What_," I said, "Do you _want_?"

I relieved most of the pressure on her throat, but pinned her arms to the wall. She screamed in frustration, tossing her head from side to side. Her fingers twitched spasmodically, but that was all the movement she could manage.

I was now vaguely aware that Ashleigh stood at the door, gaping. She couldn't move for the shock she was experiencing.

"_What do you want_?" I repeated.

"You!" shrieked Shauna. "_You_! You ruined it all! Had you not stopped me, I would have been able to kill off _all_ of Xavier's students!"

"Why do you want to do that?" I asked, my curiosity taking the better of me.

She struggled for a moment. Then, gasping, she spat, "So that I could get rid of all the X-Men!"

"Why?" I repeated.

She said nothing.

I pressed harder.

"I was promised that I could have a place of power in the new regime!"

"_What_ new regime?"

"Ours! Magneto promised me—"

"Who?"

"The most powerful person on the planet! He wants to enslave humanity and give power to people like us!"

I leaned forward, tightening my pressure. "I could kill you now, you know," I said conversationally.

"Then _do it_."

"But I won't."

She looked extremely surprised. "Why?"

"Because I'm not like you. I may have a temper. I may start fights. But _I'm not like you_."

I carefully lifted her from the wall and, with one hand, threw the window open.

"Do you know what it's like to fly?"

She looked at me as if I were insane. "Of course I don't!" she shrieked.

"Well, you will now," I said, and promptly threw her out the window.

She screamed as she rocketed through the air.

"AND DON'T COME BACK!" I bellowed.

I sank to my knees, my head in my hands. A nasty migraine throbbed behind my eyes. My white fingers clutched the windowsill. I had used a considerable amount of power by using my telekinesis.

"Melody?" asked Ashleigh softly.

"What?"

"What—what was that?"

I lifted my head and looked at her. Her eyes were wide with horror.

And, sighing, I explained.

All of it.

"Mutants," she repeated when I finished.

I nodded sullenly. Though my headache had lifted somewhat, it was still there.

"I _knew_ something strange was going on around here!" she crowed, laughing maniacally. "I _knew_ it!"

"So you don't…think I'm a freak?"

"Of _course_ I don't! What're friends for?"

"Ashleigh…" I said slowly.

"Yeah?"

"I think I could kiss you."

"Please don't."

I laughed.

"Here," she said, striding towards me. She grabbed my arm and hefted me to my feet. "Up we go. What _were_ you doing to her?"

"Telekinesis," I replied. "I was throwing her around telekinetically."  
"Cool!"

"If you don't mind, I think I'm going to call a friend of mine over here…"

"Go straight ahead."

I beamed at her. Then, closing my eyes, I locked onto Kurt's brain wave patterns. I found him pacing nervously in his room.

_Kurt_?

He jumped, looked around wildly, and then said aloud, "Melody?"

_Kurt, I'm at Ash's house. Shauna… she just attacked me._

_I'll be right over_.

_Wait—!_

I quickly jumped back as the air in front of me seemed to implode with a loud _BAMF_!

Kurt suddenly stood before me in all of his blue furred glory. He took a step forward and grabbed my shoulders, looking intently into my eyes. "Are you okay?" he demanded, his accent heavier than usually.

"Hands _off_," I said, gently prying his fingers from my shoulders. "Yeah. I'm fine."

He sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. "I _told_ you to be careful around her. She's _never_ going to let this go."

That's when he noticed Ashleigh, who stood gaping at my side.

He leapt back and hit the wall, tail twitching. His yellow eyes went wide. "Er…"

"It's okay. I told her," I said, and after seeing his scandalized look, continued, "She saw me fighting Shauna. I _had_ to tell her."

"Damn right," Ashleigh said fervently. She squinted at him. "Do I know you? I mean, I know I haven't _met_ you before. But I feel like I know you somehow."

He gave a small shrug. "You might know me better like this," he mumbled, turning on his inducer. His visage flickered.

"_Whoa_," she said, a grin stretching across her face. "That's _cool_!"

"To you."

"It's not easy, being blue," I cackled.

He glared at me. "Witty."

"So… you're saying you believe Melody?" asked Ashleigh.

Kurt nodded. "Of course. I've seen her start a couple of fights, but she'd never actually _kill _someone."

"Good," I said, "Because Shauna confessed to me. _You_ heard her, Ash."

She nodded in confirmation.

I began to pace. "Kurt, does anyone else in the Institute believe me?"

"No," he said, shaking his head sadly. "Well. There _is _someone. Kitty does. She's convinced you didn't do it. Says the scar on your hand is proof."

I unconsciously rubbed my palm, tracing the long scar across its breadth. Ashleigh immediately grabbed my hand and forced it open wide. "So what _really_ happened with this?" she demanded.

"Shauna dropped a knife at Kitty's chest. I was the first one to get there and caught it before it got her. Unfortunately, I grabbed the blade by accident."

"Oh."

I paused, something occurring to me. "'Crawler… did anyone notice when you 'ported here this morning?"

"I think so," he replied.

"Did they know what you were doing?"

"No."

"Did they suspect you of coming to find me?"

"Er… I think they might have."

"Then won't you be missed if you're found gone again?"

Realization dawned. "Oh, man," he said. He quickly shut his inducer off. "I gotta go. Be _careful_, Melody. I doubt that's the last you'll see of Shauna. I'm working on sorting things out back at the Institute. The Professor is still gone and so we have no proof Shauna is lying. When he gets back, though…"

I nodded. He reached forward and squeezed my shoulder. "If you ever need any help, don't hesitate to call."

He stepped back and closed his eyes.

_BAMF_!

I turned to Ashleigh, who had a gigantic grin on her face.

"What?" I asked irritably, as I could see no humor in the situation.

"He likes you."

I shrugged. "He's my friend. Of _course_ he likes me."

"No. You don't get it. He _likes_ you."

"Oh." I said as realization dawned on me. However, I waved it away. "Yeah, right. He's just my friend. I doubt he could ever like me like… _that_."

She giggled.

"Besides," I added, glaring, "_I _like Scott."

"_Scott_? He's all stiff and responsible and all that. I mean, yeah, he's cute, but I can't see why else you'd crush on him. And that besides, Jean and Taryn are all over him. Kurt has more of a personality. Stick with him. You must admit, though, that blue fur just turns you on."

I scowled.

"Kurt's just my _friend_, alright?"

"Whatever you say…"

I pinched the bridge of my nose to calm my headache, which had begun to rear its ugly head.

"You must have a headache," Ashleigh said, "C'mon, let's go get something for it…"

Together, we walked down the stairs. What a turnaround, I mused. I had no friends when I lived with my mother, and now I'm finding them left and right.

And, through all the pain and misery and feeling of betrayal, I felt happier than I ever had in my life.

I stuffed my hands deep inside the pockets of the gray hooded sweatshirt I had borrowed from Ashleigh. I kept my head bent as I strolled the streets of Bayville, watching the wet pavement glitter in the streetlights. Despondently, I kicked a rock around with my foot.

Two days had gone by since Shauna's attack. Ashleigh and I had been getting along great, but I needed some time alone. That, and the fact I had to contemplate what I would do after her parents came home. That date was fast approaching, and she said I had to get out by then (for which she apologized heartily, but who would want to be caught with a fugitive in their home?).

Voices drifted down one of the alleyways. It sounded like someone was being beaten up… both voices were male. I sped up, trying to ignore it.

Like I could do anything.

The voices got louder. I twitched my hood down to cover my face. It sounded as if more people had joined the melee and, if the fight spilled out into the street, I didn't want to be a part of it.

I sighed and kicked the rock as hard as I could. It soared through the air and bounced off a brick wall, clattering to the ground. I hunched my shoulders and stared at it.

Footsteps rang out behind me. I stiffened. This was a very remote part of town, where most of its crimes occurred. If someone was following me, it wasn't to ask for donations to the Jimmy fund.

"Leave off," I said loudly, not turning around. "I'm not here for trouble."

The footsteps retreated. I sighed again, shoulders sagging. So maybe I wouldn't have to use my powers to ward off some mugger.

I continued on my way. Whistling, I strolled down a street where all the streetlights had gone out. This street was almost pitch dark.

As I walked, something tugged my hood back off my face. I whirled around, falling into a defensive position. Scanning the street, I found no one there.

My heart began to thunder in my ears. Was Shauna back for another attack?

Someone shoved me from behind. "Look what we've got here!"

I turned sharply to find myself face-to-face with Shauna. I hurriedly backed up and ran into someone else. Startled, I jumped and careened into a brick wall.

The other person I had run into was Amara. She was not dressed in any way I had seen before. Her hair was clipped back out of her face and dark glasses covered her eyes. She was garbed in—and I was extremely surprised to see this—black leather.

I glanced back at Shauna. She was dressed in the same way.

Four other people came into my view, three of whom I recognized instantly: Jean, Rogue, and Kitty. The other I had seen once before, but that time she had been with the Brotherhood.

"Here's a criminal we can set to justice," said Rogue.

The girl I didn't know laughed eagerly, approaching with what looked like a miniature sun in her hands.

"Guys, c'mon, she wasn't, like, doing anything," Kitty pleaded with the others.

"Yeah, but she's done something already," snapped Jean.

Shauna grinned maliciously at me from behind the others back. Her voice dripped with fake sorrow as she said, "You killed my sister."

My face turned a series of different colors before settling on red. "I didn't," I said quietly. Then, raising my voice, added, "Not that _you'd_ believe me."

"You're right," the unknown girl said, "We don't."

Jean must have plucked the thought from my mind, for then she said, "This is Tabitha."

"That's Boom Boom to you," Tabitha replied.

My eyebrows lifted.

"She wasn't, like, doing anything," Kitty persisted. "Let's just let bygones, like, be bygones—"

"_Bygones_?" snapped Jean, "She murdered someone!"

"I didn't!" I nearly shrieked.

Tabitha cupped her hands and something that glowed brilliantly flashed into existence between them.

"_Leave me alone_!" I yelled, pumping up my phasing ability. If worse came to worse, I'd back through the wall. Kitty wouldn't follow me… she was on my side.

Shauna started forward. Kitty grabbed her arm. "If it's worth, like, two cents, _I _don't think she, like, did it! She would never have, like, hurt herself if she had! And I felt as if there had been, like, someone else in the room before she came to the rescue!"

I glanced at Shauna. She paled slightly, but only someone who had been looking for this would have noticed.

I certainly had.

Amara followed my gaze. "You think_ Shauna_ did it? It was her sister!" she asked, incredulous.

I didn't give an answer, but glared defiantly.

"You _do_, don't you?" Rogue asked slowly.

"She would murder her sister if it meant a place of power in Magneto's regime," I said, very quietly.

All four X-Men stared at me. Tabitha seemed oblivious; Shauna, livid.

"What?" Jean demanded. "How do you know about Magneto? No one ever mentioned him while you were around."

I jerked my head at Shauna. "I got it from her. She spilled it all to me, when she attacked me in—in—in the place I'm staying."

Rogue and Amara both looked like they believed me for a moment. I caught Kitty's eye. She nodded grimly. I held my breath.

"You know what? I—I think we should leave her be…" Jean said. "Go find someone else…"

Kitty nodded. "That's, like, what I was saying the whole time. The Bayville Sirens don't, like, attack innocent people."

Slowly, they all left but for Shauna. Kitty gave me a small smile before she disappeared around the corner.

"I'll get you, _CopyCat_," she sneered, spitting my name as if it were a swearword. "You can be sure of that."

My eyebrows lifted. "Oh. I am. It's just that I'll probably be the first to get _you_."

She scowled and grabbed the collar of my jacket, ramming me against the wall. "You can't stop me," she hissed.

I shrugged and phased through her grip. She jerked her hand back as if struck.

"I can always try," I said quietly.

She glared at me one last time and darted into the shadows, becoming invisible.

I watched her go, a fiery hatred curling around my stomach. It wouldn't be much longer, I decided. All I had to do was corner her where she couldn't get away.

And there was only one place that would be able to hold her.

The Institute.

A/N: Why… hello there. I am SO extremely sorry that this took so long. It's been… what? Months? ::sigh:: I'm terribly sorry. Hopefully, the next chapter won't take so long. The story is nearing its end, and the chances of a sequel are looking pretty good.

**I just want to remind you all: Even if it seems like I've forgotten this story, I HAVE NOT. I will ALWAYS work on this story because there are so many reviewers. I will NEVER FORGET this story. REMEMBER THIS!!! It may take me a couple of months, but another chapter is coming.**

**And speak of the devil… stick around for "Chapter 9: Infiltration"**


	9. Author's Note and Sincerest Apology

Aaaaah, crimeny. It's been so LONG since I've posted, and I've so terribly sorry:facepalm: My computer freaked out at the beginning/middle of October and we got a new computer at the beginning of December. Unfortunately, it wouldn't let me log on to Well... I've found out here.

I give you all my humblest apologies. I promise to get a chapter up, quickly and _soon_. I just have to transfer it from one computer to another in order to post it. (We still have our old computer, but it doesn't have Internet access.)

Can you forgive me?

Sorry and rather depressed,

Padfoot


End file.
